One Piece: Quest To Riches
by RikuShima
Summary: This is a tale starting with a three man Pirate Crew, out of the sea searching for the Greatest Treasure left to mankind. One Piece, stay with our characters as they fend off villains, sing jolly tunes, and get in trouble at every turn! On this quest, no one is sparred from the Windmill Pirates!
1. Chapter 1: Starting from the bottom

There once was a man named, Gol D Rogers. He had fame, wealth, and power beyond your wildest dreams! Before they hung him from the gallows, these were the final words he said, "My fortune is yours for the taking, but you'll have to find it first! I left everything I owned… In One Piece…" Ever since then, pirates all over the world, set sail for the Grand Line searching for One Piece. The treasure that would make their dreams come true!

That very story has been told from ear to ear, over the long course of time, that the Legendary Pirate Gol D. Roger, traveled the Seven Seas, and struck the new age, the Age of the Pirates! For years, there has been plunder and chaos across the ocean in search for the legendary treasure, in the end, the one who finds the Treasure, will forever be known as the King of the Pirates! Our tale begins in a troublesome part of the sea, East Blue, said to be the treading groups for renowned Pirates, such as Don Krieg and Buggy the Clown, both having a high reputation and suitable bounty on our heads, but none have yet to be known like the Pirates of the East Blue seas, those who are just starting their journey and making their way into the horrid living known as the Pirate Age.

"God damnit Jasper!" was heard from a distance land, a small island known as Skulp Island, another treading grounds for nothing but Bounty Hunters and Salesmen looking for Weaponry business and work. The yelling being heard from a three-man group running away from a large large crowd of angry villagers, angrily thrashing about with their swords and firing rifles at three men, the one screaming still telling his head off at the others, "Why the living hell do you two always have to do this!?" The man said with bold fury towards the other. The crowd showering in hatred and frustrations as they shooed away the group, "I hope you all burn in hell!" "Die you Pirate scum!" All hateful comments just raining from the crowd, the other of the running trio that caused the problem giving off his light snickers of pleasure.

"Ah. Can you truly blame me for not trying? Did you see how elegant her figure was!? So curvy! So soft! I almost couldn't bare myse-!" As he was cut off by a right hook, nailing him square in the jaw by his companion running beside him, giving off a loud groan. "Shut the hell up… and run…" As the one running ahead of him, was watching his surroundings with a largely clueless expression, seeing butterflies floating about in front of him and smiled as he heard the crowd screaming behind him, "uhhh guys… What are we running from again?" Both of his companions looking at him with the greatest look of bitter annoyance and disbelief of the ignorance, the one causing the riot sighed heavily as he shook his head and cleared his throat, "Here we go again…"

[Flashback - 8 Hours before this chaos…]

The water lightly rocking in peace as the blistering sun was shining the clear waters, the seagulls flocking about in the sky above as a semi-large ship was wading through the waters, peacefully as ever, their large flag rippling in the wind. The printing on the flag was those of a pirate, a large skull dead-center in the cloth of the flag but instead of bones crossing the skull, windmill fans were the replacement. This being the ship piloted by the Windmill Pirate Crew. Little known crew, beginning their adventure on the seas not a week before this moment, the ship consisting of the three men fighting back the sea's deadly wonders. "Ooooooh! Guys, you think I could eat that seagull?" said in a somewhat soft and curious tone, coming from the mast of the ship dangling from the ladder of the standing platform, a childish laugh came from the man of 24 years, who stood at 5'6 and wearing a white plain, collared shirt open to expose his chest area which was slightly with scars on his body, covering his lower region would be black shorts that ran past his knees and a sash across his hip, with nothing but sandals on his feet that were still dangling from the edge of the bar on the ladder, as his deep blue eyes wandered across the ever blue skies, as his also bright blue hair flowed above his head and fall down from the direction his body was hanging. Still awaiting the answer from the others, he looked down and flailed his arms, "Hey guys! Did you hear me!? It's about lunch!" with his last words, the flailing about made him fall down the ladder and tumble on his head, as the others simply sat there in shock & awe seeing that the very captain of their ship was planted dead on his ass, "You see… I told you I should have been made Captain…"

That coming from the man on the right, Rio Hanaki, a 29 year old swordsman, sporting brownish blonde hair and hazel eyes. He stood at 5"8 and he wore a black vest the was unzipped to show a little bit of his chest with black gloves. Rio also wore black pants with black shoes and had his crew mark on his left arm, which again was the skull and windmill fans, also wearing thin black elbow pads. "Time and time again, you just can't keep your head on straight. One of these days, it's gunna crack like an egg." He grumbled to his friend, in a lecturing tone.

"Hey just because you're older doesn't make you the obvious cannonball for the captain Rio!" The man said as he rolled over onto his stomach and rubbed his sore head, "IT'S CANDIDATE YOU IDIOT!" He scolded with a strike of his sword to the top of his friend's head, before walking away to the other side and shaking his head. "Call me when dinner is ready."

The other witnessing the quarrel only shook his head, "You two are cat and dog with this stuff I swear…" giving a shrug and a soft flick of his hair, he smirked. This man was, Jasper Evans, lady killer extraordinaire and master assassin of the Windmill Pirate Crew, He wore a red coat with a tall collar that only goes down past his tail bone, with a black and gold lining. His hair, while never one color, is short and simple with a very cool style to it, covering his forehead but not being longer than his hairline in the back. It looks untidy but falls in a way that women have said looks good on him, shirt being white with a long collar. It shows his chest, and a muscular one if comments from the ladies have anything to say about it. Over his loose white shirt, he wears a brown vest that clips where his belly button lies, a large pink belt with multiple layers, giving it the look of bandages. Over his vest and shirt and around his waist are leather belts, mainly for style purposes. His eyes shown a vibrant green hue, and in his ears are large ear rings, in his right ear a large rainbow colored feather. And finally, in the middle of his mainly bare chest lies a pendant that he always wears. Turning away to let his coat float about and reach down to help the captain up, and dust off his shirt, he sighed. "Try and keep your head where it's supposed to be, alright Gerard?" As his Captain gave a nod and walked to the head of the ship with a soft nod, "When are we supposed to be landing anyways?" Asked with a bright curiosity, as he looked around at the seagulls flying about the sky.

"It shouldn't be too long, but you know, I'll go get some food going. Everyone around this ship gets grump-ass syndrome when they get hungry from the looks of it; Ciao." He said with a soft wave, and turning away and walking into the cabin of the ship as he went to prepare a meal for the rest of his crew. Gerard simply say on the edge of the ship's Bowsprit and hummed a soft tune to himself for a while, around a half hour later he saw something, it was another island off the edge of his eye. "Oooooh that must be where we were supposed to go…" With that he performed several backflips until he planted on the deck and hurried over to the wheel and steered the ship towards the island and headed for the docking bay, in the distance he made it from the island. 'Skulp Island' read a large sign before the docking bay, as the ship slowly pulled into the dock at a heavy stop as he could see there were several others that looked battered and broken in the lot, Gerard only keep his eyes around on those, "Looks like someone could use a paint job… like you, and you, and you… and definitely you.. and…" his words were cut off by his ship ramming into the side of another and leaving a rather large hole in the side that rocked the foundation of his very own, and startling the others as they both screamed from their slumped over positions, "GOD DAMNIT GERARD!" As they both rushed out seeing the hole in the other ship, their jaws dropped at the scene as water flooded into the broken region. Gerard turned to his mates with a wide grin, "Tape will fix this! It fixes everything!" As he said that, he dashed off of the ship and walked past the docking as the others followed suit, and remaining in their shocked state as they didn't know what to say, so they remained silent to keep attention down but hurried their way towards the town, as there was a loud commotion around the ship they crashed into, they gritted their teeth and pushed Gerard forward and ventured their way into the town.

After a short walk from the docking station, they reached a small town in the middle of the island, seeing business vendors everywhere and bounty boards lined on every street corner, the three of them seeing all of life flowing from this town, they all decided to get well acquainted with the locals, Rio stepped forward and motioned them both to follow as he looked back at them both giving them a heavy glare, "both of you… Try and keep as low a profile as you can. We are here for the treasure and nothing else, got it?" his words in a hushed whisper. As he turned away and examined a weaponry booth, and the vendor as he thought to himself, "This one right here… looks about right. How much old man?" He questioned looking at the very differently made sword that was placed against the table, the old man spoke to him the price following some silent coughing, Rio shook his head and paid the vendor with his own share of the last treasure they made and took the blade for his own, examining it careful. "Hey guys, don't you think this craftsmanship is a little weird?" No response was heard. His head throbbed as he saw that Gerard was still standing there but looking around at a fluttering butterfly, not minding any of the words that came from Rio, but seeing no sign of Jasper. "Oh man… Where did he go?"

Shortly after, Gerard's head snapped back into the question as he pointed to a tavern down the lane, "Jasper snuck off into there, after a crowd of women. He seemed pretty excited, maybe he was thirsty." Rio sighed under his breath and took Gerard by the collar and pulled him into towards and into the tavern, seeing a large band and an area of people crowded with drinks, women, and hearty laughter going about the crowd, Rio sighed in relief as he saw Jasper alone at the bar and not surrounded by women, they both approached him and leaned over his shoulder, Rio raised an eye at him and proclaimed, "Got shut down this time pretty boy?"

Jasper's head tilted towards him and shook his head, "Not that, two of them were already wetting their britches but this isn't my glass of rum. See that big guy over there? That's the guy who's ship we hit… I recognised the flag on the ship and the imprint on his armor, they're the Krieg Pirates, said to be pretty well known in these parts of the sea." Taking a sip of the drink he ordered and looked down. Rio nodded in agreement, as he kept his hand on Gerard's collar, planting him in a seat next to Jasper, "Both of you sit here, and don't make any kind of scene." As he turned to the bartender and held his hand up, "Until then, I think I'll have a drink old man." He placed the Berri on the counter, as a couple drinks were passed down the counter as he took a swigg of the glass with a sigh, "This town has good ale. Drink up boys, we are heading into the life we wanted." said the man, both nodding in agreement and guzzling down their beverages.

After a short time Rio raised from his seat and waved at both of his friends, "Both of you better behave… I gotta take a leak…" both nodding again to him, as Jasper looked around and sighed, "Only if…" After taking another swing of his drink, before stopping in amazement at the sight, a beautiful, young woman dressed in a long, red and black dress with heels and her short yet curly red hair covered her eyes, gloves with the very same texture and coloring, her lips dipped in red, he saw this beauty. "A-ah.. Such an tender figure, hips swerved at the step, and perky lips and such a glamorous chest, yes yes!" He looked around and passed a small pill to Gerard, "Here drop this in rum for you and Rio. It's flavor additives, I purchased in the last town we passed. You'll love them!" He said with a keen smile, knowing he lied to both of his friends, being the ships doctor as well as the assassin, those pills were a special concoction to enhance the alcohol levels in the rum and make them pass out for a small time.

"Wow! Thanks buddy! I can't wait to try this." He said dropping them both in the alcohol and shoved his rum down with much haste, as his vision begins to blur after a while his head tumbles over and hits the counter, Jasper taking his time to make his move. He fixed his collar, and walked up to the woman and cleared his throat with gentle grace, "Good day, has heaven cast an angel aside or did you come to visit me personally?" His words falling from his lips like honey to the ears, as the woman giggled at his words, "You surely know the right approach to a woman. The name is Lindine" Taking her hand with much grace, and pressing his lips to her hand "Sir Jasper. How about I treat you to the time of your life?" He tossed some strapped together berries at the band, "Play us a saucy tune boys!" As he took her by the hip, pulling her close to his arms and dancing into the crowd with the others, giving her swift swings across the dancefloor and causing her giggle at every turn, him giving her sweet comments and groping at her which peaked her interest in him as she smirked, "Such a gentleman." She said in a pleased tone at his display, "I aim with high intentions m'lady. You've not see the world yet." His blonde hair giving her a soft wink and tugging her away from the crowd and towards a staircase.

As the time passed, Rio was still in the restroom leaning against the wall and slightly annoyed at all taken positions in the room. As he grumbled, "God why can't one of you finish already?" As he said that, one of the men snickered and flipped him off from behind, with much anger. Rio seeing as he was already in a bad mood, he walked behind the man took him by the back of the head and whispered, "Night night, dumbass." and sending his skull into the wall and crashing through, causing him to knock as Rio tossed him to the side the others hurried out of the restroom and past a large man walking in. With a long sigh, he finally got to relieve himself, the large man taking place beside him, after a small amount of time the man noticed there was one of his men on the ground.

"What the hell happened here!? You know something about this small fry?" The man asked as his golden armour shimmered in the light, and his tall figure overshadowed Rio, he turned his head, and spit on the ground. "Poor idiot got in my way, so I slumped him over. Not my problem." He fixed his pants and prepared to walk out of the door but the man stopped him, by his shoulder, sending his knee square into Rio's gut and sent him flying into the wall and sliding down the wall, "The name is Captain Don Krieg. Only I can kick around my men and get away with it. Don't let our paths cross again." He said as he took his way out the door, and Rio took hold of his gut for a second and took a long breath "Son of a bitch…" As he finished up and walked out as well, and back to his seat, he saw Jasper gone and Gerard passed out, he shook his head and rolled his eyes back, "You can't be fucking serious… This can't be good." As he mindlessly took his drink, pressing it to his lips and guzzling down the liquor, before stopping and falling onto the floor and passing out.

About an hour later, there was a loud crash around the area where Don Krieg and his men were supposed to be sitting, it was the big guy himself breaking a table over the back of one of his men, "Where the hell is she!? I've been waiting for ages now!" As the bartender approached him in an afraid manner and muttered, "A-are you talking of that one fancy lookin' gal?" Krieg giving an obvious looking nod. The old man's finger shakily pointed to the stairs as the large, man hurried his way up the stairs and heard nothing much a womanly shriek, followed by several gasps and screams. "What the hell!?" As he stormed down the halls until he hit the room, kicking in the door and dropping his jaw at the scene as he saw Jasper and Lindine wrapped in sheets, they both looked over at the door as Jasper gave a look of displeasure, "You know, you'll have to wait your turn…" which made Lindine give Jasper a scornful glare, as Don Krieg stood there in pure frustration, his body shaking with pulsating scorn and hatred for the sight. His veins in his head popped and his teeth grit, his fist raised high in the air and prepared to strike as Jasper snickered and said, "Well shit…" as he hurried from the bed to grab his clothing and leapt out the window in a glorious manner, the sun shimmering off of his golden locks and his pride higher than the clouds. Finally, running around in his birthday suit and several more crashes being heard from the outside, Jasper laughed at his swift get away and ran towards the ship. As the crashing was so loud that Gerard and Rio begun to wake up, to the sound. "Once I get my hands on that fancy footed bastard, I'll rip his ass in half!" As Rio and Gerard exchanged a look of displeasure and nodded, "Jasper…" both pushing off the floor and rushing out, while everyone stared back at them rushing out the door. "Hold on!" Gerard said as he turned back, running to the bar counter and grabbing a pitcher of rum, and running out "This is mine now." Following close behind Rio, as he heard the sounds of gun shots being heard as a large crowd of men and angry villagers chasing after the two, knowing they were being seen with Jasper early. "Oh hell! Captain looks like they aren't happy!" Gerard turned to him and finished the glass, tossing it behind him and into the crowd, "Well, who would be happy at people who caused a heavy uproar of bloodthirsty pirates in their bar?" Which caused Rio to shake his head in anger,thinking 'this has to be one of the only moments where you aren't a dumb ass!' Before anything could happen, Jasper hopped out the bushes and ran beside the two of them, in a happy manner, "Well top of the morning friends! Nice weather were having?"

As Rio closed his eyes tightly, he turned to see Jasper behind him, and restrained himself from choking his friend out, but yelled out at the top of his lungs, "YOU SON OF A BIIIIII-"

[Flashback End - Present time]

The three still running away from the large crowd as Jasper leaned his head over to Gerard, they both nod to each other. "Well, then I suppose we should deal with this sooner or later." As they were close to reaching the docks at the end of the long path, he saw a large crowd of Don Krieg's men standing in front of their ship as they all formed a circle around each other, and looked around in the crowd seeing themselves surrounded, all they could hear was the sound of pistols loading and swords being unsheathed, Rio shook his head and flipped the hair around and spat on the ground, "Time to test out his new blade I guess… I haven't had the time to, because of these idiot friends of mine." As Rio proclaimed this seven of the crew mates walked up from the blocking crowd, and pointed their swords at him and grunted, "You're gunna pay for wreckin' our ship spike boy!" As the said that, Rio glared at all of them taking a large deep breath, as he took hold of the blade, it being a chokuto or straight sword. The hilt of the blade being jet black, and the extension of it longer than any normal blade made at that time, he ran towards the crowd and released the blade as he ducked down almost to waist level, his blade released so fast that two of the attacking pirates, giving a rotational motion in between two of the men and swiftly stabbing his blade in the ground once he got past the two, almost as fast as a bullet he was in his current position as blood poured from the multiple slice wounds of the two, Rio grinned. "Don't tell me you're all talk and no play? Come and give me some love." He released his sword, leaving it staked in the ground and spread his arms around in a smirk.

Both Gerard and Jasper, were dodging bullet fire and whistling and cheering for their friend, "Way to go Rio-sama! Show them who's spiky!" Gerard said as he mocked and laughed at the marksmanship of the gunners. "Yeah, show them the Windmill Pirates aren't anything to mess with!" Jasper added on to Gerard as he saw that Don Krieg and another individual were heading towards this direction as people started to die and bodies flew around, "We gotta move fast Gerard!" As the scene cut away from Rio for a second, Don Krieg and the other man was seen, the other dressed in some strange but obscene sphere armor, "What the jolly hell…" had came from Jasper as he saw the other man's get up, both Gerard and Jasper pressed their hands to their mouths and struggled to conceal their laughter. After several attempts they both fail at their task, and burst into laughter at the outfit the man was wearing, and that didn't please him on bit causing him to step forward towards the start of the laughter, Jasper rose from holding his gut to see a large sphere heading towards his face, "Fire Pearl Surprise!" Before the attack made contact, the sphere set ablaze and struck Jasper dead in the face, sending him into a burning pain and spiraling to the ground, as he laid there with burn smoke running from his collar and cheek, as Pearl stood there in boastful joy, "Now there is something to laugh about! How about that pretty boy!?"

Jasper softly rose up, chest first like an undead out of the casket, his cheek was severely burned and his joking expressing now gone to frustration, "You know, ladies don't take pity on this face when it's this damaged… And that kinda hurt." As he said that, his skin slowly started to revert back to normal, the burn marks and everything turning back to his clear, perfect and natural color as he flipped his hair out of his eyes and smiled at the crowd, "Aha! Works like a charm~" As he said that with much charm itself, and vanness. The women in the angry mob fainted. Jasper got up from the ground and dusted himself off like nothing, smirking at the man and snickering, "That the best you got?" Pearl seeing him unharmed only made him more frustrated, the rest of his spheres ignited in flames at the passion of the anger, "First you try to disgrace the woman of our Captain… Then you insult me, I'll show you what true hell is! With my new armor, I am now Pearl the Steel Wall! I got beaten by that slick from the Straw Hats with my last, but this time hehe this time, nothing is standing in my way from an actual challenge!" As he said that, Pearl rushed at Jasper screaming, "I've only lost blood in battle once! And that was the last time!"

With those words, Jasper simply let out a small 'tsk' and tossed his coat off of his back as he reaching into every place he could on his torso and tossed several objects into the air, around 10 of them being tossed, Jasper blew a kiss at the crowd and dashed towards his opponent and leaping into the air, using Pearl's head as a stepping stood, the things he tossed into the air, were several very easy to conceal daggers, all of them floating about at the sky as he grabbed six of them between his fingers, three in each hand, Pearl turned around to see Jasper swirling them daggers at them at blinding speeds, each of them flying past Pearl's head which caused him great fear at just the very speed, the very force and speed made the blades gash each cheek on Jasper, giving him cat like markings on his cheeks that slowly dripped blood. Before hitting the ground, Jasper grabbed the last two daggers, one in each hand and smirked at Pearl, "And such a bold faced lie was told on this day, I thought you only bled in battle once in your life? Sorry to break it to you, but you are no match against this Assassin!" As he pointed the daggers in a provoking manner, at Pearl he stood there in shock at how he broke his record again for not bleeding in battle, the rest of the crowd afraid to even continue the gunfire at the fighting pirates, but Don Krieg of course only standing in frustration, spoke boldly, "Kill that worthless bastard or you're going overboard!"

Pearl took that as a displeased note to speed up the process as he smacking his spheres together causing them all to ignite in blue flames, Jasper raised an eye at the combatant as he saw Pearl rushing at him again, but stopped as Pearl stopped and flung several flaming pearls at Jasper this coming to a shock, Jasper avoided most of them but got struck in the right hand, dropping his dagger and turning his eye away for a second, Pearl got several clean and strong hits at him sending him into a tree, as Jasper took a minute to compose the situation, he looked around for the position of his blades and smirked, reaching into his brown vest, and pulling out several small pellets and tossing them to the ground, creating a large surrounding of smoke and haze in the area, "I work in the dark, to penetrate the light…" Jasper said, in his soft yet sweet tone, giving way to multiple possibilities to his location as he said, that footsteps could barely be heard. Moving as swiftly, and silently as a mouse, all of the daggers were retrieved as he took his position to strike the blind Pearl, "Where the hell did you do!? C-cowards hide in the shadows! Come out!" with those words, Pearl flung several more pearls in every direction he could in attempt to attack Jasper, but failing as he did so, in a hushed whisper, "No matter how hard your armor is… everything has a breaking point, and my blades are that point!" As he said that he tossed several daggers at a heavy power and velocity, as the thinned and hard edges pierced into the foundations of the armor and caused cracks in them as the smoke slowly clearing in front of Pearl, he could only see Jasper taking a dash for him, and running his arms behind him, as his body took in momentum from the running, he kept towards him, and begun a right 360-degree rotation at the center point of the breaking point of the armor, "Now! Silence Step! Final Waltz!" As he said that, he sent both of his palms pounding into his point of the armor, both hands pointed in opposite diagonal positions, in an upward position and nothing but pressure was sent into the spot, which shattered soon after that single hit, but Jasper didn't let up, he perform swift shifts in his body in both directions and sending his palm into the same spot over and over, repeating his formation. His several palm thrusts caused his armor to crack away and shatter at the strikes. Before long, Pearl was at his knees coughing blood from the pressure being pushing into his organs from the armor hitting his skin and the blows as Jasper only laughed and fixed his hair, "Next time… Don't try and challenge our Crew!" As he said that, he used the same display of strange power he used to repair the burned and damaged skin, he used showing that his skin was changing, as he sent that last thrust at Pearl, his very palm cause a heavy cracking in his face sending him flying backward and planting to the ground, before he turned to his crewmates, giving them a thumbs up, "Alright! That was a walk in the park." He said strolling towards the rest.

Rio sat on the bodies of several other Krieg Pirates that tried to fight back at him, two of them sitting there holding their faces and screaming in pure agony as smoke rose from them, they only yelled for the sensation to stop, as Rio stood up and sent his foot into the head of the screaming men, "Idiots… Making such unneeded noises when I'm trying to have a conversation. Anyways, I think this should hold us. Maybe we shou- ARGGGH!" He said as he felt a sharp pain in his back, and a cryptic voice spoke to him, "You think that you can kill off our men and not get hacked by this crew?" As Rio backed away as fast as he could, he ripped his sword from the ground and let blood trickle down his back from the long, deep slash. "You think you're tough shit because you got one good hit off of me!?" with this frustrating exclamation, as he pointed his blade at the man, showing it was a shirtless man, with a gas mask over his mouth, lazy black hair over his eyes, and a sickle and sword, one in each hand. They both took their positions as they dashed towards one another. Rio making the first slash as their blades danced about, Rio managed to gash the man's chest in a cross formation on his chest, "That's trading blows!" As the man raised an eye at him and growled heavily, returned with a sweep of his sickle and cutting the bridge of Rio's nose while he was stepping backward. As the blood dripped down his face, Rio smirked as he placed his finger on his nose as a sizzling noise was heard and a small amount of smoke came from his skin, Rio giving off a light inhale and exhale, he removed his finger showing a closed wound on his nose, "Child's play…" The masked man, only stood back and nearly lost his cool in shock. His mask was falling from the slash damage, and muttered under it, "D-devil.. powers.. You're a devil user!" Raising his weapons in a readied stance, they both rush at each other, a whirlwind of sparks rippled from each blade as the two crossed blades time and time. With almost every release, blood was slung to the ground from either of the bodies, as both of them locked blades in a deadlock, blood showing down their bodies from the slash wounds, they both stood eye to eye at the moment of collision and glared, "Tell me Devil user, What is your poison?" His question being of his fruit power.

Rio simple shakes his head, showing he was growing tiresome of the fight, and grinned, "It's better if I show you, rather than telling!" As he said, as he performed a complete sweep kick at the same time cracking his sickle in half and making it fall into the air as he caused the man to tumble to his back, Rio jabbed his blade into the earth next to his face and caught the broken part of the sickle, "Meltdown…" As he said that, he caused the temperature in his skin to rise, in contact with the metal within seconds, it would begin to drip away metal droplets as the droplets slowly and carefully fell into the slash mark, leaving deep and painful sears in flesh as the man screamed to the extent that he'd pass out from the feeling and drop his weapons. Rio taking his from the ground and walking away, "If you need me. I'll be in the ship…" Everyone else in the crowd standing speechless at the scene, as the swordsman walked away as if nothing had happened. All that was left was Don Krieg himself, walking forward after witnessing the humiliation of his crew, only felt a hateful rage in his chest against them, "You're all going to die! Everyone of you!" Krieg shrieked out as he pulled out two pistols from his sides, and his shoulder plates and sides of his armor released multiple guns as they all released a hail of fire upon the Captain of the crew, kicking up a large pile of dust and and smoke as he laughed manicly, the gunfire stopped and the dust slowly cleared as a body wasn't shown in the spot. Krieg stood there in confusion as he wondered where in the living hell he could be, "You know you're aim could use some work. Kinda like, actually trying to hit the target?" Gerard said as he was standing above Krieg on nothing but air as he smiled down and him and jumped up blasting an air current downward, knocking Krieg flat on his ass and then softly making his way to his original position, holding his fingers up to the peace sign.

"My name is Captain Gerard Hanwell! Next in line for the Pirate thrown!" As he said that, it made Krieg laugh raising back on his feet, "Last time I heard that… a goofball made a mistake! Boys, Send it down!" As he made his call, a long halberd was sent from the crowd of his men, "This was specially made for taking care of troublesome Devil Fruit users like you! This blade was specially made with seastone and reinforced steel! Try to avoid this you pesky fly!" As Krieg swiftly slashed his weapon at Gerard, he only ducked underneath the first slash as Krieg released the pistol at his side and took fire at Gerard, barely escape the blast, he held his side as the bullet grazed his side, he saw that his shirt was damaged in angered him as he inhaled a deep long breath, "Wind Wind Current!" As he said that, the release all of the air he built up in a high pressured stream of wind that smack Don Krieg into several trees, and made him drop his halberd, and groan in frustration, "You are one troublesome little… FIRE THE CANNONS!" As his order followed through, some of the crewmates snuck by him without notice as several cannonballs launch towards him, Gerard crosses his arms and builds up a strong enough current of wind that a pillar would launch him in the air and avoid the explosion above him, as Don Krieg and multiple other's continued the gunfire, Gerard only took the second to all up another strong current of wind that pushed back on the bugshot upon contact with the wave of bullets as he saw that Don Krieg had a large amount of gunfire still coming towards him, Gerard flipped off of his current and rode another as he surfed through the air, screaming "WOOHOO!" At every flip, as he dodge and rolled past bullets he got a fair distance away from Krieg as he smirked at him, "This is the end of the line for you! Windmill Fan!" As he kicked several thin edged wind slashes at Krieg in the front of his armor, cutting away segments so they would exposing his chest and several broken weapons fell from his chest and to the ground, Krieg begun to panic at the sight, "D-damn you! Die!" As he tried to toss the halberd at Gerard, he ran at it, jumped on the Halberd, and launched his fist towards his stomach, "Taaaaaaaaake this!" Wind gathering at the center of his fist in a large collect as Krieg drops his guns in panic, Gerard stops at Krieg feet and smiled, "Gale Upper!" As he shoved his fist into Krieg's gut, releasing the current in the form of a rather large tornado, it sending him swirling into the sky, "And now for the finale! Bird's Eye Drop!" He took control of the current that was already above and carrying Krieg to send him at a spirally force crashing through his very own boat and causing it to slowly sink into the sea. Gerard panting softly a the effort dodging the bullets was, "No biggie, this guy was a kitten compare to our home…" He spoke to Jasper as he took his by the collar and muttered to him. "Let's just get the hell out of here… Before we catch anymore trouble."

After pulling their ship from dock and sailing away a voice was heard in the distance, well-wishing the ship a safe travel, "Sweet Assassin! Be safe in your travels! Never forget more!" was said from the damsel that Jasper accompanied in the tavern. "Hey loverboy looks like you got another addition to your fanclub." Rio said with a teasing tone. "Oh haha, keep it up funny man. Let's just find the right island this time." Gerard was once again ignoring the conversation of them both, and humming his tune on the edge of the ship, "I wonder if that seagull ever got eaten…", both of the crew mates giving their captain a sadly unsatisfied glare, and speaking simultaneously, "What the living hell goes through your mind on a daily basis!?" With a cheerful and vigorous response, "BIRDS YOU IDIOTS!" As they floated away, their screaming and chaos followed them through the sea, thus ending the first tale of the Windmill Pirates.


	2. Chapter 2: Tragedy on Windmill Island

**Chapter 2: Tragedy on Windmill Island**

Leaving off where we left with our misfit crew known as the Windmill Pirates, drifting away for around three days now from their adventure in Skulp Island, every last one of the crewmates having their own thoughts on the events but none of them happy about the turning events but Jasper, considering he was the cause of the issue.

Gerard sitting at the head of the ship as he usually was to be seen there, Jasper and Rio were sitting in the center of the deck as Jasper examined Rio's back while Rio sat there chugging down a couple glasses of rum, "You know that sickle got you pretty bad, My Cell Cell powers can only go so far, but I'll have to keep unbandaging you, repairing the flesh and rebandaging you only for a few more days." Jasper stated to him in a serious tone, knowing that his burn damage on his cheek was still healing as well.

"Well… it can't be helped I suppose, better than letting it bleed out I guess. We're glad to have that power around, ya know?" Rio said in means to complimenting him, but only caused Jasper to frown knowing the truth behind all of it. Jasper rose after placing the bandages back on his body and nodding, taking his hat from the floor and placing it over his hair which was now a bright green color and slightly longer, but he didn't let it show due to the hat, "Well I'd say it's more so a curse at times… and you know why." Rio heard his friends sorrowed whisper, and closed his eyes while slipping his clothing back on, "I know Jasper, but we can't dwell on that. You know what we were told." Rio's words were like venom to ears of his companion as they both nodded to each other, "If either of us could really agree with that, It's Gerard over there." Which sparked nothing in the air-headed Captain. Jasper took Rio's hand and raised him from the ground and dusted him off, they both stared at the sea and looked in wonder, as they spoke to each other softly.

"You know Jasper… We would never be this close to each other, the three of us, if that day wouldn't have happened…" As their minds drifted past their imagination and tears ran down Jasper's cheeks. Their minds fluttered back to that time…

**[Flashback - 13 years ago]**

"One at a time! One at a time! There is more than enough to go around! Come one, come all to see the show!" A young voice was heard in a small field area on an unknown island. The voice came from a young man with blonde hair and a black vest, with a lollipop on the edge of his lip. This boy would identify as a young, 12 year old Jasper Evans. "Come ladies! To see the display of skill, of the Porcupine Swordsman Rio Hanaki!" The crowd slowly gathered and tossing their berries into a metal bucket next to Jasper's feet, the crowd widely consisting of girls. Jasper pointing at Rio, him staying completely quiet as he show the 15 year old Rio, his hair a deeper shade of brown, a simple white t-shirt and shorts were his attired, along with a wooden training sword in his hand. Not speaking a single word as he stared at the other boy. "And on my other hand! You see the blue haired boy wonder! Gerard Hanwell the 3rd!" As it was their Captain as well, at the age of 11 standing with his usual short blue hair, it now down to his back and draping over his hip, it was slightly curled at the ends with his same style of white shirts with the opened chest and sandals with black shorts as he hand on both of his hands a pair of golden colored boxing gloves smacking them together repeatedly as he bounced back and forth like a champ at the world finals. As both of them knew that it wasn't going to be real and a show, they exchanged a wink at one another along with a slight laugh, Jasper turned away from the crowd and waved his arms, "Now! Begin!" As he said that, he dropped from his platform as he moved beside two girls that seemed to be older than him and possibly Rio.

Rio and Gerard circled each other in the fight area, as they smirked they rushed at each other. Rio give quick jabs of his wooden sword at Gerard him giving light bobs and weaves at the thrusts before he punched the blade out of the way and leaned up sending a punch at his jaw, but Rio letting it make contact sent his head directly into the center of Gerard's, causing him to hit the ground. The crowd of teenages seeming to have a good time, as Jasper smirked at the distraction, and spoke under his breath, 'hehe showtime!' as he said that, he slipped on a pair of all black sunglasses and slipped through the crowd while everyone was distracted and picking pockets at every chance he got to not be caught, and giving a flirtatious grab on the women in the crowd here and there, still up to no good ways. Both Rio and Gerard kept the fight exciting by pushing themselves against each other day by day, usually the role would switch between the three but today was their turns. Gerard still dishing out haymaker after haymaker to his friend's body as they saw that Jasper was almost done with the rest of the crowd, and they both thought it was time to wrap up the show early. Gerard took the very same stance that he usually would, getting ready to deliver a painful uppercut to Rio, as he bolt towards him, "Haaaaa! Get ready to get your head knocked off!" Rio smirked and held his sword in his usual manner, getting ready to perform his rotating slash as they both charged at each other, their winding up the crowd was closer than ever to the edge of their seats, knowing that it was about to be game decider. Jasper gave them the thumbs up and hid the money around his body along with the rest of the money from the admission fees. Rio and Gerard both hit each other square in the head, causing loud cracks to echo in the area as they dropped to the floor with a dinging bell to be heard, behind the cheering of the crowd, one side for Gerard to get up and one side for Rio to get up. Both faking the knock-out, the kids still cheer and the fans satisfied at their show.

Jasper walked to the front of the crowd and gave them a subtle bow, "There you have it folks! Once again, both fighters have given their all! Stay tuned for the next show!" As he said that, they all waved and walked off from the three boys, talking about how fast and strong they both were fighting each other, not a dissatisfied customer or sucker by Jasper's standard. Gerard rose from the ground first and walked over to Rio, helping him up who was laughing at how easy it was this time. "Man… Never gets old. These kids really know how to pull in profit." Rio spoke of his friends and sat up on the ground, calling over his friends, "How much did we make this time?" Gerard climbed on Rio's back and swayed back and forth trying to balance himself, "Yeah! Yeah! How much!? I want candy!" Gerard explained seeing that his friend was sitting there counting about the berries. "Well looks like we reaped in a heaping 2,000 this week!" As he said that, they all rejoiced in their victory as Gerard fell off of Rio in the midst of the celebrating and landed on his head, as the others looked back at him in silence, Jasper commented, "One of these days, you're going to end up retarded…" As Gerard popped up off the ground and shook the dirt out of his blue locks, and snickered at the name he was called, "Now now Jassy, You know we learned that people can't be vegetables." Gerard stated with much pride towards his friends as they both couldn't help but plant their heads into their palms.

Gerard stood there in confusion as they decided to get a move on, "First of all, we hit the candy store. Then we put the rest of it in the hiding place." Rio stated as he slipped the wooden sword in a rag belt on his waist, the three young ones talked about how amazing this pull in was and decided it would be best to treat themselves. As they walked into the little town known as Wallengrant, the boys rushed past everyone with their money well hidden on their person and laughed as they stormed down the streets and into the local candy store, Gerard ran to the counter and waved to him, "Y'ello Mr. Garu! What's new today!?" He said with much excitement, Rio walking past him and straight to the cotton candy flavors and Jasper over to the lollipops as good ol' Garu approached Gerard with a muffled laugh. "Well sonny I bet you'd like to know, this just came in a couple days ago. I figured you'd like it more than anyone!" Pulled out a small sack from under the counter, and untying it, Gerard could barely contain himself as the object pulled from the bag was a somewhat large jawbreaker like candy, "You see this? It's sort of like a clumped ball of flavored sugar! b-but be careful, it's kinda-" As the sentence was cut off by the sound of little Gerard's teeth smashing down on the hard candy and getting stuck in it, and mumbling for help. The others simply stood by and laughed at him as he struggled to get his teeth out of the candy, Rio and Jasper walking up and pacing the payment on the counter, "Alright this should do for now, thanks Grandpa!" They said as they grabbed Gerard by the collar and pulled him out of the store as well, finally getting his teeth out of the jawbreaker and trying to nibble away at it to crack it open, the others looked around to see if anyone was following them but didn't see a bird in the sky looking for them, so they took their route through the alleyways and across the several street divisions until they reach a large-scaled, broken and 3 story high windmill that almost overshadowed the whole village, it was almost smashed to hell and back with a missing fan blade, multiple chunks in the walls and windows smashed, the paint peeling away and so much more horrible vandalism that other children had done as a 'joke.' The three young men stood before the landmark, and smiled widely at the happy moments they shared in this old windmill, Jasper rolled the lollipop around his lips and walked to Rio, "You know, if the old man was still around. This windmill wouldn't be in the shape it is in now. Ya know?" He said in a slightly broken tone, Rio only nodded in agreement and nothing more, "Let's try not to think about it. His last wish was that we save this windmill for him. And We will do it, even if it costs us every last penny we can scrap together!" Rio stated after his moment of silence, which caused Jasper to agree. Gerard simply running into the rickety wooden door, opening it and heading to the basement of the windmill. "Come on guys!" He screamed out as he motioned to his direction. With wide smiles they hurried down the stairs and went to a painting that almost blended into the darkness and wall paint color, it was a painting of the windmill owner and his wife, standing the day it was first erected. The boys all worked together to carefully move the painting away from the spot to reveal an in-wall safe which Rio proceeded to punch in the combination, "I hope you're watching us old man… The tricks you taught us, and the lessons you raised us with. Are what will make your dying wish come alive." As Jasper tossed the money in, there was already a large collection of gemstones, berri, gold and much more valuable trinkets that they happened to have pick pocketed off of tourists or traders that rolled into town. The boys all gave each other a look of accomplishment as they shut the safe and hurried back to their homes. Night soon falling over their town.

The next morning begun just as simple and normal as any other, but of course that is never the case. "Uuuuuuuugh! Jaaaaaasper! I'm hungry…" Gerard mentioned as he kept trying to nibble his teeth into the very same jawbreaker from yesterday, failing to make a dent in the thing, he attempts to headbutt it until it cracks and still getting no results. The three boys had awakened in their shared home on the edge of the village, it was small compared to the huge housing around the rest of the town, and had a single room for them all to share, with a fairly function kitchen for Jasper to cook, restroom, and of course a balcony for Gerard to slip on. "I think we'd better get him some food before he ends up killing himself." Rio smacked Gerard in the side of the head, stopping him from trying to chew his way through a hard candy, and sighed. Jasper nodded as he took his eyes off of the neighborhood girls and let out a disappointed groan, "Well I suppose that food comes first. The stocking isn't in town until later so let's go do some fishing!" Jasper said as he walked to the chest in their room and pulled out the rods, each of them grabbing the one with their names on it that was carved in with a knife and rushed out the door, as they passed several villagers, the local Tailor Woman and the Mail man, "Hey Kids! Be careful by those waters! Stay away from the tide." They all kept running, without a second thought to get themselves some breakfast, both of the adults shaking their head with smiles knowing that that group of goofballs can take care of themselves, and going back to their daily routines.

A short while after they reached the shoreline, the three stumbled across a red crate with strange markings on it, they all decided to approach it and try to knock on it. "This looks a little suspicious. Where did it come from?" Asked Rio, which lead to shrugs from both of his companions and only struck more curiosity, "Well I say we crack it open! Might be more goodies inside!" Gerard stated in excitement as he jumped up and down on the box which caused it to smash open and him to fall through it, and the others clearing the debris from the contents. All of them stopped as they saw that there were three strange looking fruit inside of the box that all had some strange curling patterns. One in the shape of a red and white pear with a half spiky side and half smooth, the second was a gray pineapple that had a light yet smooth texture to the outside of it, and finally the first one had a hard texture to it, that looked as if was some type of mutated tan colored kiwi. The three of them pondered on whether or not to touch them. "Well they look like they aren't poisoned… I mean, I'll eat them if you guys do…" Jasper pointed out as he looked at them both but Gerard already had the right idea and dug his face into the gray pineapple and shoving it down as well, "It tastes weird! But It's juicy!" he said as he kept gobbling down the rather large pineapple, Rio shrugged his shoulders at Gerard, "If you can't beat em' join em', besides, If one of us dies, at least we all get offed." He said as he took hold of the strange pear and started to eat away at the fruit and trying to stomach the flavor of the fruit. Jasper observing them both and wondering about these strange fruits that washed up on their peaceful lands, he shook of that thought soon after and joined the party eating away at the kiwi that was remaining, this one had an appealing flavor to it, one that wasn't as bad as the others, "I don't know about you guys. But this was sweet as hell!" Rio shrugged his shoulders at the response and smacked his stomach in delight, as Gerard was already at the edge of the water and casting his line in, "I don't know about you fellas but the fish are waiting to be caught!" He exclaimed, wasting no time to try and catch fish.

The other two laughed at the idea but decided to go along, as Rio started to reach for his pole, his hand begun to shake slightly as he felt sweat running down his wrist, and palms getting warm as he thought that maybe the sun on this fine day was getting to him, he was horribly wrong… In the attempt to grab and raise his pole, the wood on the rod only started to sear and before long he dropped the rod seeing that the grip of it was now covered in black burn markings, Rio's eyes widened in shock as he screamed, "What the hell was that!? What happened to my rod!?" Both Gerard and Jasper jolted over in pure shock seeing the smoke rising from the pole and Rio's hand as they all panicked at the scene and couldn't believe it, "Rio what the hell is happening to your hand!? Dear god!" Jasper proclaimed as he looked around for something to cool it, he moved Rio towards the water. The soothing tide brushing against his skin caused him to relax but evaporate the water slightly, halting the searing in the process. They all remained silent for a moment, and looked at each other and screaming at each other, "What the hell did we eat!?" All of them knowing that they probably couldn't have guessed anything else could do this to them. Jasper placed both of his hands at his head and shook it slightly, "This is nuts man, I don't know what the living hell could have happened here but we gotta stop it now. Maybe if we barf them up?" Jasper said pacing across the sand back and forth, trying to keep his composure. After a good minute, both of his friends stared at him in shock as well, but they both couldn't get a word out, so they pointed towards the water and told him to look, "What is it? don't tell me I'm a frog or somethi- HOLY CRAP BASKETS!" Jasper saw that his beautiful blonde hair color had shifted to a bright, flamboyant shade of pink, which made him completely shatter at the sight, "Oh no, Oh no, Oh no, Oh no, Oh no! My image is ruined with this.. I can't believe that this has happened! There has got to be some way to go about changing this. Oh god!" Jasper rolled around the floor, holding his hair and panicking, Rio sat there still afraid at what he'd done with just a simple touch, he was afraid to even approach either one of them and touch them, "G-Gerard? Are you alright? No extra limbs? No burning? No slowly dying?" He asked in a shaky tone, past the screams coming from Jasper.

Gerard sat there calmly on the edge of the water and fished for food, "I'm fine! But these fish won't be when I'm done with them!" the words made Jasper spring from the ground and smack Gerard with piece of wood over his head, "How can you be so calm in this kind of situation!? This is bad! Very bad!" Gerard wasn't phased, surprisingly, by the wood as it barely seemed to even bother him, he kept fishing and humming a happy little melody under his breath, "We will all be fine. It's only your hair and Rio is back to normal. But we still have a problem with these fish, ya know?" Finally giving up on his panic, because Gerard spoke the truth. Jasper planted his face in the sand in attempt to hide himself. Rio reaching frightenedly for his fishing pole, grabbing it with little hesitation and begun to cast in the waters, as the bobber with a soft 'bloop' his nerves took a rest, all three of the kids remaining silent for the rest of the fishing trip.

When night came about, they all sat at the center of the beach with a campfire burning to cook the basket of fish they caught, each one of them nibbling away at their share of the food, and only exchanging looks every few bites into the fish. Before long, Gerard grew tired of this and rose up, "Look guys, whatever happened today. It was freaky and all but we gotta keep it together. If anyone finds out, or if this gets out of hand. We could get kicked out, so maybe we should help and try to control them and keep them secret!? I think this would be the best time agree!" As Gerard put his hand forward, both of them knew it was the truth and smiled knowing they weren't letting this problem shatter their friendship, slapping their hands over Gerards as they all smiled at one another and nodded. "Yeah! That's the spirit, the Old man wouldn't like it if we just pushed this out the window like that. So, lets make the best of a sticky situation." Gerard took two more fish and begun eating away at them like he was starving. Rio and Jasper just laughing at the goofy expression on his face while he shovels down food. Nothing else in the problem mattered at that point but what happened between them.

**[Much later that night…]**

The three boys laid in their shared bedroom snoring their heads off, peacefully as ever until there was a low cannonfire heard in the distance. Rumbling and screams fluttered in the night as Rio was the first to wake up in shock, "What the hell was that explosion…? Shit are we really under attack now!?" A couple other explosions caused a rattle in their house as well, which next woke up Jasper and Gerard from their slumber, both in a confused state, "W-what the hell is going on?" Jasper asked as another rumble was heard from the side of the village, "Guys, I think someone is attacking… All I can hear is cannonfire from the water. We gotta move fast and see what the hell this is about!" Gerard yawned while Jasper nodded and quickly got himself dressed, holding his prized pendent to his chest and hoped that everyone was alright. Gerard followed their lead, grabbing their little mementos, the sword, boxing gloves and the hat. As they rushed out of the door, they couldn't fathom the fact that the entire city was in flames, everything they grew up to was covered in the horrid fires, as nothing but explosions could be heard. Gerard finally composed himself of the situation at hand, and gasped, "Guys! We have to go and help! Everyone must be trying to at least fend this off, come on!" As he dashed past them both and hurried into the city, the two of them quickly followed behind him. Weapons at the ready, and hurrying into the city as they could see several of the charred bodies of people they knew and loved, dead in the streets. Voices could be heard in the distance, popping off bullets here and there, as a louder one is heard, "Take them all out! I don't care who but find those that took the Devil Fruits!" Rio heard that phrase, and took hold of his two friends' shirts and pulled them into a broken house as the crowd passed, covering their mouth's, "Guys… This isn't good…" He whispered to them as the gunfire continued, the group of men identified to be pirates passed the window. With a soft sigh, Jasper and Gerard kneeled there in complete tears as everyone was being killed off before them, seeming like not a soul was left.

"I'm sorry guys, but… this isn't the best time to have this happen. I mean…" As Rio tried to comfort his friends, old man Garu approached them with a pistol in hand and blood leaking from his head, "Boys! Oh thank goodness you're all alright! You need to get out of here, come with me!" He ordered them all as they followed him out of the store, Garu fired off as many bullets as he could at the pirates that were necessary to fire upon, "Now I don't know what the daylights they are after, but I know it damned sure ain't here!" As the old man lead them towards the boat shop in town, his intentions were to get them a life boat and sent them off, but All three stopped abruptly as their tears couldn't help but hit the floor, "M-Mr. Garu!" They choked on as they shook in their place, trying to bite and nibble away at their lips, the old man stopped and rushed to their sides, "We can't stop here boys! Whatever it is, can wait! Come on!" They all tried but couldn't move a muscle, guilt clouded their hearts and made them afraid, Gerard screamed, "We're sorry Mr. Garu! We're the cause of all this death! We ate the weird fruits they are after! We are so sorry Mr. Garu!" As Gerard fell to his knees in tears, Mr. Garu stood there in confusion and remorse for the boys as he walked over to them and tried thought for a second, "Look boys… This isn't your fau-" A gunshot was fired behind the boys, and a hole in the chest of Mr. Garu as his body slowly went into shock, the bullet pierced through him causing him to tumble to the ground, coughing blood. "B-boys… Please.. run..!" As they all stood there shock as the very man they looked up to and respected the most, was gunned down. Mr. Garu had been almost like a father figure to the boys ever since their parents left them and the Old Windmill man, they all couldn't believe it. Rio turned around in a fit of bitter anger and raised his sword, "Grrr! You bastards are gunna pay!" As he screamed that, he felt a large man grabbing him by his throat and crushing away at his windpipe. Dropping his only tool to the ground, Rio had to think, "Now now, settle down ya little bug! We overheard your little conversation, and the boss ain't gunna be too happy about that! I wonder what kinda reward I get for skinning one of the thieves that too from Captain!" As the man slowly pulled his sword from it's sheath, Rio panicked in anger and fear for his life, a real sword has never been pulled on him before, the idea made him fly into a struggle as he grabbed the man's wrists and tightened his grip trying to get free, "L-let me go..! You f-ucking scum!"As Rio said that, his eyes burned with hatred and skin started to sweat like it did before on the beach, and the skin on the man's wrist slowly started to sear and burn, "Argh! You little punk! I'll stake your head after this!" Rio got free from the man's grip and glared at him maliciously, he pressed his hand to the man's face and ripped his sword from the sheath as he listen to the man scream from the pain of his face being burned, and almost melted, the screams slowly became muffled. "Night night, You fucking monster!" With that, Rio took the sword and sliced the man's head clean off making blood pool from the separation point.

Gerard and Jasper witnessed their friend commit murder on a human being for the first time that day, being kids it wasn't always the easiest thing to see the first time. As the men behind them slowly saw the sword in Rio's hand slowly melting at the hilt and their dead crewmate, it only confused and angered them, "Y-you little brats are gunna get it now! Take them down men!" Rio dropped the melted weapon as it slowly started to burn him as well, the men were still coming. Jasper had to think quickly so he grabbed Mr. Garu's pistol and the one the dead pirate had and barrel rolled over, 'Please… close your eyes mother… Don't see me do this!' As he spoke those words in his head, his body smacked Gerard and himself out of gunfire but still getting hit in the arm, Jasper fired off into them taking out a good two or three, Jasper wailed in pain as the bullet hit him. "Gah! Rio! Get Mr. Garu out of the fire!" Rio nodded as quickly as he could grabbing some ripped cloth, wrapping it over his hands and using it to blow Mr. Garu from the burning and dragged him away as fast as he could, "You're going to live Mr. Garu! Please just hang on! We need you with us…" Rio tried to keep the wounded candy salesmen awake and alive, only muffled words fell from Mr. Garu. As Jasper, with tears in his eyes, picked off man after man with little ammo he had, tried all he could to protect Gerard who was still holding his head and crying. "Gerard wake the hell up! I could use some help! There is more coming and I got hit! Don't be a cry baby right now!" Finally there was nothing but a 'click' 'click' 'click' from Jasper's last gun, he was out of ammo and didn't have anymore to reload. Jasper started to get frightened until there was that same voice they heard before, "Well, if it ain't the lil' brats that took my treasure! Looks like you're gunna have to pay, right along with the rest of this village!" A wicked laughter was heard as the figure could barely be seen, but it was a man that had a large portly body, broken teeth, and with black curly hair, and three pistols in his belt. As Gerard heard that voice, he stepped in front of path the man was walking, standing around six to seven paces away from him. "Y-you… you are your darn crew… Took our home. Our family. Our island! And Wrecked it for some stupid fruit!" As Gerard began to get angry, his tears grew and for some reason, so did the pressure in the wind grew around them to the point where it was almost hard to even move. The large man that stood before him, witnessed this as he was confirmed that the boy ate what he was looking for, "So you're the one who ate the Wind Wind Fruit!? You little scoundrel!" As he said that, he attempted to pull a pistol on Gerard and fire, as Rio and Jasper both stood there in shock, almost feeling it in their gut that they were going to lose him.

After the bullet traveled a short distance, Gerard snapped more and groaned, "GET THE HELL OFF OF THIS ISLAND!" As he said that, he pushed his hands forward cause a large torrent of wind to travel and push the bullet back and past the men, as the wind picked up all of the men felt themselves being forced back and sent crashing through a building, and making the very foundation of the home collapse on them. Gerard stood there in a heavy pants, as he didn't know where that came from but it stopped the menace, sniffling and coughing, Gerard's body collapsed from such an intense experience at using the power, Jasper quickling dropped his pistols and caught his friend in time, Jasper shakily worded to him; "What the living… his fruit let him do that…?" The two remaining boys were almost speechless, as Jasper tossed Gerard over his shoulder and carried him over to Mr. Garu, who finally brought himself to wording something. "Y-you boys...'cough' have always been something else… from when you were.. wee little chaps." The old man looked at them all, as his vision slowly begun a slow haze, he smiled at them all. "Live on… ride the waves, and find yourselves a new home.. If you stay here, you are sure to be killed. Please as my final wish… Take the boat and leave." Rio gritted his teeth in silence, in response fighting back every tear he could. "But Mr. Garu! Come with us! You taught me medical stuff right!? Remember!? You and Doctor Roven! What if I can…" Jasper tried to fight back the conclusion, but was cut off by the old man with a weak laugh.

"There you go again, Not listening' to a darned thing this old geezer has to say, Please listen to me this once and go… Use those gifts and get strong. Take your home back with pride, but you must live to fight another day…" Garu looked up and closed his eyes with a quiet smile, "Take care of each other boys… and never forget what you learned here." With those words, the old man's body dropped to the ground and he took his final breath. Neither of them had anything left to say as Rio turned away, and peaked over his shoulder and whispered, "Let's go… before they dig themselves out of the rubble…" Rio kept walking, as Jasper cried and lifted Gerard up and hurried over to the boat shop, slipping past every remaining pirate they could, the boys were on a mission to live. After a short jog across five city streets, the boys were finally at the boat shop near the water. Rio carried a boat to the water for them to transport in, while Jasper followed close behind his hat that he retrieved was pressed firmly over his head and hair over his eyes, they all boarded their life boat and pushed out to see, all that could be seen was a bright ember that was once their home. As the rather large pirate ship on the opposite end of the island, still assaulted the remaining inhabitants of the town, there was one stray cannonball that could be seen, zipping through the air and heading towards the top of the windmill that overshadowed their little village, as the ball crashed against the windmill everything shattered on it. The money, the memories, the promise was gone now. Rio and Jasper sat in silence as all they could do was drift at sea.

**[The next day]**

Bright and early in the morning, the three boys were still drift at sea, Jasper and Gerard just waking to the sound of seagulls in the distance but Rio still awake, not being about to get an ounce of shut eye, "Still up huh? Darn birds keeping you up?" Jasper remarked jokingly, as he tried to play off his usual humor but groaned and held his arm, knowing that he was shot there last night. Lifting up the rips in his shirt sleeve, Jasper's eyes widened as the bullet that hit his arms wasn't there and only a small scar on his skin was seen, almost as if the wound had closed itself. Jasper didn't want to make a big deal of it, so he rolled the bloody sleeve down.

Rio turned to him, raising an eye to what he saw, "You okay man? Looks like you got hit pretty badly." slightly concern in his voice, minus the shadow sorrow in the sound. Jasper smiled weakly, and nodded, "Tis but a scratch my dear friend. Besides, I should ask you that, you've been quiet for so long now." The two of them watched as Gerard fully woke up, and released a yawn out, "Man I slept like a rock last night." Gerard looked at them both and around at the water, before his eyes widened and he remembered the events of the previous night. Recalling that their home had been stripped away from them, he sat on the bench in the lifeboat and pouted in silence. Jasper and Rio seeing his reaction, took it upon themselves to take a seat on each side of him, and wrap their arms around him and sway back and forth, both of the boys inhaled and begun to sing, "Deep Blue Sea, Deep Blue Sea. Oh, Where will we go in the deep blue sea? Will we hunt for treasure or plunder for mead, where will we go in the deep blue sea?" This made Gerard giggle some, this song was the chorus for the song the Old Windmill man sang to them while he was drinking. The boys all repeated the chorus over and over to each other. Laughing at every chance they got.

For hours and hours, they repeated the chorus, until the blistering sun was at the dead center of the sky, Jasper stopped and let out a relaxed sigh, before turning to them, "You know guys, as long as we are together. Nothing in the world is too hard to beat! We can take back the Windmill one day!" Both of them got excited at the idea of taking back their home, the boys all put their hands forward and raised their fists to the air, "Let's do this!" They screamed with much enthusiasm and life, they all knew what their goal was and there was no turning back. The screaming from their war cry caught some attention as another ship slowly pulled close to them, and stopped, those piloting the flag were sporting a rather plain Jolly Roger, "Hey! Looks down there mates, a couple kids thinking they can take on the sea. Drop the latter and take all they got!" Jasper, Rio, and Gerard all smirked at each other as two pirates climbed down the rope, the only thing that could be heard was screaming and splashing into the water. As those observing the actions of their crewmates being taken down by children, they all panicked and thought to retreat, but the trio climbed aboard, fully armed with new weaponry, pride, and their dream to get their home back. "G-get those damned kids men!" As the order was followed by a fire in the sky, the boys rushed at the large amount of crew members and made quick work of them, tossing every last one out, "Hey Rio watch this!" Gerard displayed his newly discovered powers to them as he inhaled some wind and exhaled it pushing three clustered men into the deep blue.

Both of his companions laughed as they watched the display of their friend humiliate the pirates, all that was left was the Captain who, from the looks of it, jumped overboard with the rest of the good for nothing crew, as the boys took a long victory celebration, they took the ship and sailed away for wherever they could go, "Alright guys! Next stop! Adventure!" Jasper and Rio raised their fists in cheer, the ship taking face movement from Gerard's excitement, and the wind pushing the sails.

From that day forth, the three young men who lost everything to a mysterious group of pirates, decided to dedicate their lives to each other, for 13 long years they fought, stole, and survived with everything they learned from Windmill Island. Never apart from one another, and always bound at the hip, those three became the Windmill Pirate Crew you see today…

**[Flashback End - Present time]**

Jasper, Rio and Gerard stood at the side of the ship gazing out at the clear blue seas, giving a silent sigh of relief. Rio cleared his throat and turned to them, "You know guys, I think we all gained something from that loss…" He stated with a somewhat nostalgic tone.

Gerard raised his hand jumping up and down excited, "Oh! Oh! This ship!?" He said to Rio which of course, earned him a strike to the back of the head. "No you idiot… our lives. I don't think I'd rather be running another store on the island, compared to living on the seas with you all." Jasper snapped his fingers and smiled as he ran into the cabin of the ship, leaving his companions in question as he returned with three glass pitchers of ale. Passing down the glasses they, all linked arms at the shoulders and drank as they sang, "Deep Blue Sea! Deep Blue Sea! Oh! Where will we go in the deep blue sea!? Will we hunt for treasure or plunder for mead, where will we go in the deep blue sea!?" The three of them sang on and on, a they enjoyed their moment, feeling the seven seas calling them for another adventure ahead of them.


	3. Chapter 3: Beauty, Beast, and Windmills

**Chapter 3: The Beauty, The Beast, and the Windmills Part. 1**

The sky covered in stars, and a long cold breeze through the air, the lone ship that was sailing through the sea made it's way towards another tale of hell. The usual three pirates of the Windmill Pirate Crew, were fast asleep on the deck of their ship, The Luna, everything was fine and well, until they heard a large bell being chimed in the distance. "Pirate ship ahead! I repeat Pirate ship ahead! Arm the cannons!" All of the noises and chimes of the bell woke the crew, Rio being quick as a whip with his reactions, as the others followed with little reaction. They all stopped and wondered around, "Shit don't tell me someone is coming at us now!?" Jasper asked, seeing that there were flashing lights in the distance of their ship. After close examination, the three of them stopped and as they all screamed, "HOLY SHIT!" In the distance of their view, a large flag with an anchor on it was seen, in the center spelt the word; 'MARINE' which caused of them to run into a frenzy of panic, seeing it was a naval war ship! "Rio! Get the cannons ready, we are going to try and distract them! Jasper! Get to the wheel, I'm going to try and get us some wind and get out of here!" Gerard stated as the others nodded with the orders, the naval watchmen observed the movement, and saw cannons being moved. "Admiral Sir! They are preparing to fire on us!" As that was reported, the rather large gentleman grinned and pointed his arm forward. "Open fire!"

As the scream was so loud, that the three could hear and that only made them move even faster. Rio took three cannons over his shoulders and hurried them to the deck of the ship, with little no problem at all. As Jasper took the map they had of East Blue, searching for the best direction they could take at the moment, and slammed his fist to the table. "Alright! Looks like we're heading west!" As Jasper took the wheel with a mighty shift of his body, begun to turn the ship against the vicious tides. Gerard nodding to them both seeing that they were actually making good time, he crouched down on the deck of the ship as he waved his arms in a swayed motion and releasing a large burst of wind that sent time flying into the air and caught hold of the the wooden supports for the sail and flung himself to the ladder of the mast. "Give me the word Jasper!" He screamed down his friend, waiting for his moment. Gerard simply gather as much wind around him as he could and concentrated it to a soft breeze at first but in a large collection.

The marine ship continued to fire cannonball after cannonball at the three, as one of them managed to hit the side of the ship but not penetrate it, along with another hitting the cabins. The ship rocked at the assault, Rio constantly firing as many cannonballs as he could, over and over he worked his body to load and reload the ammunition, "Hurry up you guys! They're wrecking our ship, and we're running out of firepower." As Jasper nodded and kept the ship's rotation going, he turned up to Gerard and screamed, "Give us a boost Captain!" In addition to a smile, and a thumbs up, Jasper told to Gerard. Responding with a nod, Gerard pulled his hand's back and called them together with a loud boom, "Wind Wind! Wave!" As he screamed, a large stream of air channeled through the air and pushing into the sails causing the ship to fly through the wind and soar through the ocean, Rio falling over and almost falls off of the ship, but using the cannons to keep his footing and stay on the ship, their might vessel took flight off of the water's surface and flew through the air as they sailed on nothing but air for a good while, Jasper tried keeping his cool as much as possible seeing that the marines were still trying to pursuit the trio. As they finally made it back to the surface, the currents still pushing their sails forward on the sea, the marines begun to lose track of their location. After a while, the report led back to the Admiral, which of course angered him. "Damned Pirates… You haven't seen the last of us!"

Meanwhile the three of them laid against the dock of the ship, panting heavily from having to work so hard and fast at once, Gerard gave off a soft laugh and glanced at his friends, "Good work guys! We really gave them the slip this time!" He praised his friends with much gusto.

"Yeah, well the Luna took one hell of a beating in the process. I can't believe how horrible they did…" Jasper commented on Gerard's statement, seeing the several holes and smashed away pieces of their ship. Rio nodded to them, and went to retrieve the map. "Well either way. I think there is a small chain of islands somewhere around here with repair stations. Jasper, set course for this one." Rio returned to their position and pointed to the map, showing that they were already headed in that direction anyways. Giving a nod, Jasper walked to the wheel and begun to navigate them towards their destination. In the meantime, Rio and Gerard walked around the ship cleaning up what mess the marine ship made, grabbing all of the used cannonballs and tossing them overboard, along with the broken and smashed pieces of wood. They all shook their head in distaste for the marines, their ship took the hit for their carelessness and that didn't put the Windmill crew in the best of moods.

Hours after cleaning and temporarily patching up their ship from their attack, their course was now ahead of them, reaching a short end to their point of arrival, the three pulled into a docking bay that seemed to be covered in lights and fruit. The beach next to the docks filled with odd looking palm trees, everyone of them a different shape or shade of color. "Whoa! Do you see this guys!? There is food everywhere! And those trees! And and and….!" Gerard stopped with a long hard gasp as he jumped off the boat and rushed to the beach with a large dive, "A CRAAAAAAAAAAB!" He took hold of the crab, rolling around in the sand with it and holding it up. "It's so cool! It's got some weird looking pinchers!" excitement in his voice even after seeing such an amazing creature, he rushed back to his friends. "We will keep this one!" Both of them shrugging off the demand and smiling at him, "Knock yourself out man. But, not literally."

Their friend jumped around in happiness as he took the crab back to the ship to store it away. Rio and Jasper took it upon themselves to get a head start towards the city area, "I wonder how good the shipwright here is." Rio stated being concerned for the well being of their vessel. As Gerard soon ran after them and followed along side, they entered a gateway to a town that read a sign overhead, 'Welcome to Boka Boka Island' in bold lettering.

The three pirates walked into the town, seeing a large number of people dancing around in a circle of fire, playing several loud drums and stringed instruments. The three stood in confusion as the villagers seemed to be throwing some sort of festival, Gerard looked around as his crab was tied to the top of his head by some cloth. "Guys I think we interrupted something… What do you think Mr Scissors?" speaking to his new pet crab, he didn't respond.

"Oh boys, boys! You haven't interrupted in a single thing. You've arrived just in time for the harvest festival." The group was spoken to by a strangely dressed old man, wrapped in gray and black robes with multiple tassels and straps along the sides, and a long gray beard that was down to the center of his chest, standing at around 5'5 with no hair across the the top of his head, body built to an almost heavy set muscular appearance. "You young men must be coming to see our rare Crab Leaf Tea!" The old man said as he held up a small cup of tea to all of the men. They welcomed the old man with a smile as Gerard took the cup from him with pleasure and sipped down the tea, "It's so good! I've never tasted anything like this in my life." Gerard passed the cup along to his friends as the old man chuckled heavily, "Good to see a young ling enjoying a healthy cup of tea. Come inside of my shop, I'll brew you up a pot." They all nodded and followed the old man into the tea shop with quick grace.

Inside of the shop, were many older individuals and adults sitting down and playing board games or just having a nice conversations all around, the three took a table next to the kitchen entrance as they relaxed to the mood of the room, soft harp music playing around the room as everyone was cheerful about the festival, "I can't believe how relaxed and peaceful it is here, no one is arguing, everyone having a good time. This is my kind of place." Jasper stated as he sat the cup that was given to them down on the table.

"Oh yes my young friends. The Harvest Festival is when this village gets the rarest resources grown, therefore leading to full bellies and lots of trade! And most of all, we get lots of business coming in!" The old man said, coming back with a pot of the same tea he had before, placing it down for the rest of them. Rio tilted his head and cleared his throat, "Excuse me, did you say, we?" He remarked, seeing that there were no other tea servers in the house or at the counter. The old man pressed his palm to his forehead, with a small chuckle under his breath. "You'll have to excuse me, young men. WOMAN! IF YOU DON'T RAISE FROM YOUR LAZY BEHIND, I'LL KICK YOU OUT ON IT!" The man threatened in a somewhat enraged tone.

Bursting through the doors quick as a whip, was the person he was talking about, "Y-yes sir! Sorry for napping on the job! Got a little distracted you see." The girl announced as she skipped into the crowd. The girl was sporting long red hair that flowed down her back, down to her hips, wrapped in the same type of clothing the old man was wearing but shorter, at least to the thighs. Body fully developed, hips, chest and all, she was an ideal figure of the youthful desire. The girl walked from table to table, talking to the men and women who came for tea and music, taking order after order, after taking several from old men asking for the same kind, and her shifting from table to table, the girl stumbled, tripping over her own feet and falling flat on her face. "Ouuuuch…" She grumbled as she dropped her serving tray and rubbed her face.

Gerard, Rio, and Jasper all stood there with nothing but confused expressions on their faces, seeing the sorry excuse for an employee tumble over and embarrass herself. Jasper's eyes popped open and thought with a glimmer in his eye, rose from his seat and kneeled down to her, "Oh fair maiden, Twas a shame to see you hurt yourself. Let me help you up, maybe we could share a spot of tea under the moonlight!" His words filled with the venom known as 'charm' he seemed to be so use often. Before he knew it, there was a gun pointed to his throat from the girl on the floor, her glaring at him in disgust, "Step away you idiot or I'll have to blow your throat wide open." Jasper's heart sank at the reject from this woman as he fluttered away from her, spiraling into sadness in the corner, "Oh no… I've failed myself. Has my charm worn off? What has changed with this fair maiden!? Oh have the heavens forsaken me!" His hair was now a dark purple color, for some reason showing his mood as a gloomy color. Gerard and Rio sat at the table with the old man talking about the village. "I never got to ask your names young ones." The old man spoke in a kind tone, gesturing them to tell their names. "I'm Rio Hanaki, Swordsman and babysitter for these two bozos.", followed by that "I'm Gerard Hanwell! I'm gunna be the next Pirate King!" Rio gave Gerard a glare so full of death and disappointment that an eerie feeling fill the area, Rio yanked him over to his shoulder and whispered, "You don't go off yelling that you friggin idiot!" The old man laughed at them both in much pleasure at their words, "So lively, so young. Like the Jasmine flower, pressing into bloom. You may call me Roushi Wukong. Pleasure to meet you boys." Taking a sip of his tea, Rio let go his friend and laughed softly seeing that the pirate remark didn't bother the old man.

Jasper still in the corner bitterly sulking from the response he got from the girl, as Roushi finished his cup of tea and the girl running back and forth from the kitchen to the center room serving the kind patrons of the shop, "Oh! That girl over there, she is my tea waitress, Lily"

She turned to them, waving wildly and smiled at them returning to the kitchen, making more tea for the few more customers that come into the shop. Jasper exited the corner and came back to the table with his head pressed to the cold surface almost in tears, as Gerard put his new crab on Jasper's head to dance around on it. "So, Mr. Wukong do you know where we can find a Shipwright in this town, by any chance?" The old man laughing softly at the question and finishing yet another cut of refreshing Crab Leaf Tea, wiped his lip and pointed at himself. "You're looking at him right now, in the flesh and blood. The best Shipwright this side of the sea." Gerard and Rio both spit their tea to the floor in shock as they saw him announce himself as the man they were looking for. "S-seriously!? I never would have guessed!" Gerard stated as he cleaned his mouth and smiled at Roushi widely and held his hand out to him. "I need you to repair my ship Rou-Sensei!" Gerard stated plainly. The area of the room went quiet, Roushi's expression went blank at the request. His eyes closed and head went down to his chest as Rio and Gerard waited patiently as they didn't get the response from Roushi at all, a short time passed in the room before they heard a light snoring from the man, followed by some mumbling "Apple pie..." Rio and Gerard fell out of their seat in surprise at how fast the old man fell asleep, astonished at the very thought that he nodded off that quickly.

Around ten minutes later, Roushi woke up seeing them both with their heads bowed in respect to the man and holding their breaths silently, "Umm, what are you young men doing there?" Rubbing the side of his head, Roushi questioned both of them on their actions pouring more of his tea. "O-old man... We've been waiting here for a while now... Please will you fix our ship." Gerard pleaded to Roushi, in the most hushed tone he could and looked up at him, determination in his eyes and hoping for the best possible answer. Roushi heard their plea for help and scratched his beard and raising from the table, back to the bar. "In the morning, present your ship to me. And I will see what I can do, until then. You may sleep in the rooms in the back of the shop. You all have been pleasant company, many of the visitors of this shop barely want to sit down and share a cup of tea. I thank you." with those words, the old man returned to his quarters, not saying more than that.

Rio, Gerard, and Jasper cheer from their request being accepted, "I say we celebrate with rum and tea!" Gerard screamed as the others nodded in agreement. Before stepping out of place, they felt a cold eerie presence behind them and shivered as a soft yet cryptic voice would be heard, "Could you use one more..?" the voice they heard was Lily's giving them an innocent smile and trying to push them into letting her come, everyone has a confused expression on their face but Jasper, who was still having the 'cold' feeling around him, Gerard placed a hand on her wrist pulling her to the group, "The more the merrier, the more fans on a mill, the faster it spins!" Jasper kept his distance from her, standing next to Rio as they moved to the bar up the street.

On the way there, the night sky shined a bright color, stars shimmering along with the blazing flame as the villagers danced, Gerard turned to Lily and asked, "Well tell us. How did you end up with the old man? You don't seem like you're the tea serving type." Jasper and Rio kept themselves into their own little conversation but still listening to the two, Lily cleared her throat and replied loudly, "Weeeeeeeeell, I haven't really had anywhere to go. Considering I washed up on shore one day, after being tossed, locked, and trapped inside of a box full of nails and bananas, ending up drifting around from sea to sea, picking my way around the waters, until I got here! You know I almost died a couple times!? It was amazing! I hit like 3, 4, 5... No! 8 ships on the way here, and I couple have sworn people were going to save me but, oh well!" She slipped a giggle from her lips and spun around in circles as they all walked. Gerard's eyes popped out of his head in shock, and his jaw dropped as he heard her tale, "Wow! How did you do that!? I mean did you eat one of the nails instead of a banana!? Or did they get stuck like, in the bananas!?" Gerard questioned her, as he jabbed at Rio to listen to her as well. Jasper looking away, keeping himself in deep ponder at her words, the feeling they gave to him, just didn't seem right at all. His silence was kept until they got to the tavern.

The group of individuals made their way inside of the bar, seeing everyone dancing the same as the ones outside and several people sharing drinks and songs, the group walked into the crowd all with smiles dawned on their lips, as they got lost and started their night of fun.

Rio, Gerard, and Lily sat in a circle with a large gallons of rum with each of them, the three of them glared at each other, grabbing their barrels by the handles and chugging them down heavily, having a good old fashion drinking contest. Gerard and Rio tied for their position as Lily finished her first barrel, and was passed a second as Gerard and Rio laughed while drinking causing rum to splash over them, Gerard finished his barrel and laughed at Rio while he still didn't finish his. They all shared their moment, as Jasper laid in a crowd of the village women, tossing a round of drinks to them all and wetting them all with the rum, this made the girls giggle and attack him. Jasper was truly in heaven. Their night went on with much like this for a while, Gerard getting into a fight with several other bar patrons and Rio following him as well, the alcohol and good times just floating around the room, as the night slowly narrowed down with the sound of songs ringing the air.

_[Later that night..._]

Gerard stood at the balcony at the top of the tavern, swaying back and forth as he hiccuped and giggled to himself, the alcohol obviously having an affect on him, "Oh hell of a night..." He said to himself, as he sang their sailing song to himself quietly trying to retain himself. As footsteps were heard coming up the balcony, he turned around quickly in shock and held his fists up in the air, preparing if there were to be anyone attacking him from behind, alas it was only Lily that gave him a small wave, followed by a hiccup. "O-oh 'ello there L-lily." Gerard muttered as he moved himself back to the railing, she stood beside him and stretched out to feel the cool breeze of the ocean against her skin, she chuckled softly and wobbled, catching herself on the bar. "That was one hell of a night, aye?" She asked him, her tone close to the same level of shit faced.

Gerard nodded to her in agreement, as he laughed at her words as they both shared a quick laugh in the night silence, hiccuping in between a few of them. She turned to him and tilted her head seeing that there was a crab attached to his head, "W-why do you have a moon c-crab on your head..?" She pointed out as the crabbed snipped at her. Gerard laughed, "Mr. Scissors is my new nakama... Like Jasper and Rio and the Luna!" He said as he fell over on the floor, and coughed a bit smiling. Lily's eyes widened at the word he called the crab and didn't bother to ask why, "Well you have fun with it. The crab s-seems rather liking to you..." She turned her head in a way, she felt envious of the crab and how attached Gerard was to it. She didn't try to show it at all but sat down against the bars, facing him. "So what brings you to this neck of the sea?" She asked, as she was slowly beginning to sober up, her question floating around in Gerard's head for a few seconds. He leaned his head up and waved his hand around slightly, "W-we came! For treasure! And adventure!" He said in a much happier response than anything he has said to her so far, which drew a smile on her lips. Silence grew between the two of them, it was an exchange of hiccuping after a while before Gerard finally leaned his head up again and blinked, "You know... I didn't buy that story you told me today..." He said straightly, despite his drunken state. Lily sat there silently for a moment, knowing that her cover was blown and that she wouldn't mind explaining herself to him. She said and rested her head against the bars, "I work for an organization... or worked. I quit the organization. They had deep involvements with the marines, and they wanted something. Something very important from... Old man Roushi..."

Hearing the old man's name come into the conversation, Gerard quickly pushing himself off of the ground and looked at her in utter shock, hearing all she said. He nodded for her to continue on with her story. Lily nodded back to him, "They told me to watch over the man, and report to them every location he moves to, every alias he takes, and everything he does. But... Everywhere I go, I see that this Old man is a Saint with a black past. Thinks I can't say. But the old man is harmless, kind and well, treats me like a daughter." That last part brought a smile to both of their faces.

She continued. "For years, I've played the 'waitress', the 'dancer', the 'daughter', name it and I've disguised myself as it. Just for that damned of all organization, but after a while I stopped reporting on the old man, and I haven't heard from the Navy yet, so I think our lives are back in order for a while..." Lily said as she curled herself up in the shop clothing. Gerard's smile remained as he stood up, stretching and looking over the railing, "That old man has a kind heart. I imagine you stayed with him because instead of living all those lies. You wanted a place you could call home. I know you'll find it some day." Gerard spoke to her silently, as those words hit her like a ton of bricks, those words made her think of Roushi again, which again made her smile brightly. Gerard made his exit from the balcony, grabbing Jasper out of a pile of women in the floor of the bar and Rio from underneath a table, both passed out to hell and back. He carried his nakama back to the tea shop, seeing that the streets were nice and quiet, his friends snored the peace away.

A short walk later, Gerard quietly arrived at Roushi's tea shop and walking behind the counter, and down a hallway to their room. Before reaching it, Gerard could heard whispering coming from Roushi's bedroom, wanting to hear what was going on, Gerard placed both of his friends down in the bed and hurried back to the door. Through the small peak hole in the door, Gerard could see that Roushi was sitting up and shaking his head at something that looked like a map, listening to the words that were said in the room, "So much death... So much hate... Just for this damned of all thing. One of these days, your purpose will be served." Gerard heard in confusion, wondering what the old man was going on about to begin with. Trying to ignore what he had heard coming from the old man and get himself some shut eye, resting next to his two friends.

_[The next morning.]_

Gerard awoke from his slumber, seeing as the other two were gone and off on their own. He rubbed his eyes, and rose from bed silently and left the room seeing Lily running in and out of the kitchen, serving drinks to the kind patrons of the bar. Facing each other at both ends of the hall, she shined him a grin and went back to her job. Gerard nodded and fixed his soft blue hair out of his eyes and fixing it so it was back to it's curly way, passing through the door and seeing both of his companions enjoying some tea with Roushi, "Morning guys!" Gerard hurried over to the table, pulling up a chair, as a cup of tea was slid his way. Jasper was picking through his pockets, pulling out several strange objects, some berries, some accessories, and a couple pairs of panties, all fell out of the pocket of his jacket. Rio raising an eyebrow to him in shame, "Really Jasper? Did you at least keep it in your pants?" Jasper rolled his eyes in response, and making sure all his hidden trinkets were still there.

Roushi patted Gerard on the head, giving him a welcoming smile. "Good to see you woke up health young man, seems like you all had one hell of a night in store." He announced happily, seeing that Rio was on the other side of the table fighting a hangover and Jasper was still fiddling through the many pockets and secret compartments he had.

"Yes sir. This village really comes alive around time for this Festival huh?" Gerard mentioned, sipping at the delicious tea that was poured for him, Roushi nodding in agreement to the statement. "Oh yes, yes. Everyone here has not a care in the world when this comes around. I've been haunting this village for seven years now, and I've had quite the pleasure in taking part in the festivities." With a finish, he drank what remains of tea was in the cup and sighed happily, "Nothing wakes up the system like my tea!" Roushi boasted on about his creation, the men all agreeing with the statement they laughed as Lily came to the table and leaned against the wall. "Everyone seems to be having a ball over here, is there something I'm missing out on?" She asked with much curiosity, a pressing her serving tray to her lap. All of her customers were satisfied or gone for the moment, her free time was granted by Roushi. "Oh nothing child. Just giving a lesson to these whipper snappers!" He followed that statement with laughter, and reached under the table grabbing a toolbox. "So, young ones. Tell me where your ship is, and let me show you how a real shipwright gets the job done!" Roushi showed much pride in his skills, those words drove Rio, Gerard and Jasper from their tasks as they pushed off from the table and out the door, "This way sir! You can't miss it!" Gerard exclaimed to the old man, excited about what he was planning on doing.

Lily and Roushi followed them out of the tea shop and walked down the street, Roushi's back giving off cracks here and there as he sighed, "Not in the shape I used to be in!" He held his breath trying to make his body move faster, Lily only chuckled at the old man and hurried up to catch up with the rest of the boys. "Hey! Wait for me you darn kids!" As everyone came close to approaching the beach, all that could be seen in plain sight was their ship torn apart, the sail ripped and the cabin's entrance almost fully wrecked. As they showed six figures standing on the boat, all of them facing away from the group, they all saw the group approaching, as the largest one of the lot walked forward. "Well nice to see you all made it to the party! We almost couldn't start the bonfire without the guests of honor!" the man said as he dropped a match on the ship. Causing it to slowly catch flames along with the rest of it. They six mysterious individuals stood before them laughing at the destruction of the ship.

Gerard's eyes lit with pure rage as they were hurting one of his friends, it didn't please him. "Jasper! Rio!" They both heard his call, responding with a swift, "Right!" Rio grabbing the blade at his side and drawing it his stance, and glaring at them waiting for the best time to strike Jasper following his order, pulling a pistol to his right hand and three throwing knives to his left and glared down the men, giving them close examination of who they might be working for.

"Looks like the little boys brought out their toys, looks like we will have to play with them for a while..." As the man stated, his fingers snapped as the earth suddenly begun to shake and stir underneath them, and out from the water comes the very same battleship they saw before hand, the one that almost shot their ship out of the water. Without noticing, the ship was at an angle that could see a large printing on the side of it that said, 'Cipher Pol – 8' Everyone stood there in shock as the man's laughter filled the air, tension build around, as the ship burned. The Windmill Pirates paralyzed with fear, as they were truly about to be challenged...

**To be continued...**


	4. Chapter 4: Challenging the CP-8

_**Chapter 4: The Beauty, The Beast, and The Windmills Pt. 2 **_

"Looks like the little boys brought out their toys, looks like we will have to play with them for a while..." As the man stated, his fingers snapped as the earth suddenly begun to shake and stir underneath them, and out from the water comes the very same battleship they saw before hand, the one that almost shot their ship out of the water. Without noticing, the ship was at an angle that could see a large printing on the side of it that said, 'Cipher Pol – 8' Everyone stood there in shock as the man's laughter filled the air, tension build around, as the ship burned. The Windmill Pirates paralyzed with fear, as they were truly about to be challenged...

As the man standing on their home stood there before them, mocking and disrespecting everything they stood for with his actions, it was a bitter insult to them all. As Gerard, glared at them, he noticed they all were wearing strange outfits. He'd never seen them before or never heard of that insignia that was on the side of the ship. "Who the hell are you!? And Why have you hurt the Luna!? We've done nothing to you!" Gerard screamed, anger filled his voice as the wind collected with his frustration. The man slowly stepped off of their ship, and snickered slightly under his breath, "Where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself!" The man leaped off of the boat, walking forward and bowing as he revealed to be a tall, slender man with dark red hair, a cigarette to his lips, and dressed in a black tuxedo. After raising from his bow, his eyes with an also red tint to them glared down Gerard, "I am Drake Valdis. And You know that little get away you had a while ago? Maybe, yesterday? That was us. We didn't appreciate Pirate scum like you treading the earth, so I thought we'd do you a favor kid." Drake remarked as he laughed at Gerard. The rest of Drake's group seemed to mind their own business, as did Lily and Roushi both knowing that this is nothing but trouble.

Jasper and Rio stepped forward, still having their tools at the ready, Rio stated. "You all have little idea what's going to happen if you don't leave right the hell now..." As he said that, his blade was now pointed at Drake's chest, assuring that he was ready to take the man out within any second. Jasper nodded in agreement, trying to get a sharp analysis of all of their surrounding enemies, the light barely showing them. But something was off, he thought there was more of them. "Where the hell did he go...?" Jasper mumbled under his breath, trying to keep his focus on the opponent at hand.

"Well then Gentlemen, it looks like our mission here gained some interest. I feel like you kids will keep us entertained for maybe five minutes?" He mocked them, as he grabbed his cigarette and tossed it to the sand, crushing it under his feet. Gerard saw as the Luna still catching flames, it almost reaching up to their flag. Gerard ran forward as fast as he could, almost passing up Drake. He saw that Gerard was trying to help the ship fire, "Nice try!" Drake stated, as his fist came up extremely fast and struck Gerard in the side of the head causing him to fly across the beach and fall to the ground, groaning in pain. Rio witnessed with as he dashed forward trying to slash his blade at Drake's head as quickly as he tried to catch the pattern of the man's movement, it was drastically unpredictable Drake ducked underneath the blade and sent his elbow smashing into Rio's chest, grabbing him spinning behind him, grabbing him by his hair and tossing him across over to where Gerard was, making him drop his sword. Jasper stood there with his fingers readier at the motion to toss his blades, "T-this isn't good... This guy isn't normal..." As he noticed that the rest of them walked towards the battleship as it released a bridge like walkway for them enter it, but before that Jasper hurried over to Rio and Gerard both of them still on the ground and trying to raise to their feet. Gerard hurrying to his feet and inhaling a large amount of air and using his fruit power to exhale a large amount of air which was strong enough to pick up the water next to the boat and splash a large wave over the flames and the rest of the cabin. As Gerard held his stomach, his glared over at Drake seeing that he'd popped around cigarette at his mouth and lighting it with a small snicker, "So you're a fruit user huh? This is some valuable information. To think low level pirates like you could be special. Oh well." Drake turned towards Lily and pulled cigarette from his lips, and blew a cloud of smoke.

"Nice to see you again. It's sad that we couldn't have caught up on better terms. It's a shame, but you'll have to be offed with the rest of these sad little kids." He mentioned as he laughed softly, and glared at her now, swishing the cigarette from side to side on his lips, Lily only shook her head and growled at them, "You aren't touching me. Or anyone in this group! I'm damned sure you got what you want, I quit a long time ago. The second I stopped reporting to you fuckers, I was done. I like my life as a tea servant now." She proudly stated in her job, Roushi closing his eyes in focus as he sat his toolbox to the floor, and sighed looking away. Lily saw the old man's actions, and looked in the other direction, staying silent.

Drake almost choked on laughter as he heard what she said, his cigarette falling from his lips and holding his gut, "Oh, Oh you crack me up! Hahaha, are you fucking kidding me? The ruthless child murderer, Crimson Lily is defending a portly tea salesman and a foolish trio of fucknuts!? You've gotta be kidding me!" Drake paced across the sand and rubbed his forehead, trying to catch his breath in his sarcastic comments. Lily standing there in bitter rage, "You bastard... I quit that life. There is nothing more than stories in that name. Leave this place!" After calming himself, Drake saw that there was rage in her voice, and pointed towards her, "You have little idea of what situation you're in. We came for a few purposes. One of them, is to catch one of the last remaining crew mates that rode on Gol D. Roger's pirate ship. And Ah! Here comes the next part." As he said that, Jasper's observation was correct, the last one of the group seemed to have appeared out of thin air, holding a rolled up piece of paper. "Sir, I've retrieved the document." The man was large, burly, mustache across his lips, with tanned skin, and a mullet. He was dressed with the same type of tuxedo as Drake. Roushi's eyes light up with surprise as the document he was holding was the very same one as the night before, "How in the world did you get that!? You stole it from my shop!" Roushi's voice sounded the most enraged that Lily ever heard, her eyes now in shock as the man she knew who wouldn't harm a fly, seemed like he was about to break a neck or two.

"Ah, so you held the document after all. The Legendary Land craft of destruction, Steel Abyss!" Drake let out another happily psychotic stream of laughter as he took the rolled up document, "This paper here, is the schematics for that very battlecraft. You see children, we've sent Lily there after this old man for years, trying to discover whether or not he had this. After a while, she'd confirmed it was in his possession, but now, thanks to you foolish pirates. We confirmed their location, and we're ready to kill off this old man, the island that was harvesting this criminal of justice, and even you, you traitorous little harlot!" The hit that Gerard took finally wore off as he listened to the speech, it only frustrated him even more.

"Shut the hell up! You're about to kill many innocent village folk, this old man, and a girl in the name of Justice! Who the hell do you think you are!? We won't let you destroy anything! He and Lily were kind to us, they wanted to help us. You're going to regret those words, the Windmill Pirates are the hell of this side of the sea!" Jasper and Rio rose behind him, completely recovered from the assault, ready to repel the assault. Drake shook his head, slipping his hand into his tuxedo and pulling out a pistol pointing it at Roushi with nothing but a relaxed grin on his lips, "Just sit back and die old man... These Pirates aren't saving anyone! Rest in the earth..." As his words were said, the pistol firing off at the old man, his eyes closing in silence. As the bullet barreled over towards the old man, Lily screamed "That's enough!" As she said that, there was a loud cracking heard in direction of them. The bullet crashing into the sand, Drake glared at her and smirked, "And your reputation stands so!" Lily stood there, with a long metal whip in her hands that was almost in the shape of a twisted serpent, and seemed to somewhat like a chain. "I think that's enough of you! Drake, you've more than crossed the line by attacking him." Drake let out displeased sigh, as he turned away and laughed. "Children like you have no place in the real world... Men! Trash this place! Oh and Baron, Have fun! I think this is where we should end this off." Drake said he disappeared in the very same manner that his companion, as there was a large torrent of marine soldiers hurrying off of the navy ship, all holding blades and rifles. As they all tried to rush past Roushi and Lily, they all prepared themselves to fend off the crowd of soldiers. "Windmill Fan!" Gerard screamed as he kicked his leg across the air, whipping it through the air and sending a thin edge ripple of wind at the first lot of the soldiers, sending them crashing into the water and sand, as he looked over at Lily and Roushi, "I think we have business with that asshole Drake. Try to stay alive." He gave a smile, rushing towards the last amount of soldiers Jasper and Rio following right behind their friend, as Lily nodded returning his prideful smile, "I'll catch up with you soon!" She readied her whip and glared at the rest of the soldiers, as Baron also stared them down, chuckling in entertainment, "I've always wanted to brawl with someone who will die with a challenge! Lily, you've grown soft and killing you will leave a smile on my mustache! You won't have to worry about seeing those three pirates anymore, Drake will surely finish them off. This colossal ship is designed just for training, fighting, and of course torturing the criminals that try to resist. Whenever they step into one of the terrains, their fate are sealed!" Baron pointed back at the warship, showing how large it was it could more than easier be mistaken as a moving fortress. The rest of the soldiers that could continue to move, rose from the ground and the newly deployed ones begun charging at them, as Lily grabbed her whip tightly and smirked as she dashed towards them and gave a leap into the air, as she cracked the whip in a large sweep across the crowd smacking and cutting across their bodies like nothing flinging them into each other. She landed in the center of them, smiling with a semi-sadistic smile her whip dropping to the ground and more navy soldiers crowded around her, "Get her men! What the hell are you belly aching about these taps!?" The head of them spoke, as Lily laughed and motioned them to rush her. Roushi standing back and glaring eye to eye with Baron, each standing in nothing but silence. As cracking back and forth of the whip was heard on the air, screams of the soldiers echoed to the other side of the village, some of the village children rushing towards the scene as they saw before hand the arrival of the ship, figuring they should stay in their homes from the marines, but the screaming made them curious of the violence. There was now a small crowd of villagers and children, "Roushi, what the hell is happening!?" Some of the usual patrons of the shop asked him in shock, as Baron noticed the crowd, he smiled at them. Which gave way to an idea in his head, Roushi's eyes lit with surprise seeing the look in Baron's eyes, "Everyone leave! Now! This isn't your place to be, hide your children now!" As Roushi screamed that, he took hold of his work clothes into a tight grip in his hands, ripping them away from his clothing as he showed that his body was extremely muscular, and full of scars. Baron rushed towards the crowd as Roushi lunged forward at top speed, tackling Baron to the ground when approaching him and sending his fists smashing into his face repeatedly. "Lily! Go finish them off and help the windmills!" As Roushi was sent a heavy right hook to the side of the head and fell to the ground, as Baron wiped the blood from the side of his lip and chuckled, "You foolish old man. You picked a horrible fight!" Both of the men, rose from the earth and ran at each other, grabbing each other fighting back with a grappling deadlock.

Lily had never seen that side of Roushi, and was almost distracted by the exchange of powerful swings between both of the men. She turned back to the rest of the soldier's attempting to stop her, she watched as a blade was swung at her head, she back-bent under the blade, and sending the whip across the man's chest caught him to fly back with a large gash on his chest, the rest of the whip cracked across the chest and face the two men next to him. She grew tired of waiting as she danced through the rest of them, cracking whip over and over which such speed and grace, the men didn't see any of it coming and collapsing from the pain. Lily took her breath to rest from fighting the men, but hurried through towards the ship and turned back to her boss, "I swear you better not keel over old man! I still need my last paycheck!" She said to him, trying to jokingly provoke his fight. Roushi laughed, letting his fists smack against his chest, "Trust me! My strength to fight for this land is eternal!" Baron shook his head, and smirked at Roushi being impressed at the show of gusto and pride, "This isn't usually my cup of tea, but you'd better serve me well you old geezer!" As he went right back to their frenzy of trading fist to fist.

_[Later on in the ship...]_

Gerard, Rio, and Jasper traveled through the ship, trying to find every means of direction they could as they headed down every corridor. "Alright guys! You know what we have to do, and do what we do best!" Jasper and Rio nodded and smiled, both speaking in unison, "Kick ass, take names, and drink rum!" They all smiled ready for a fight they know it's going to rushing into the pit of the devil known as the 'Marines' they find a large division in the rooms, "Our mission in this place... Find the schematics, take down Drake, and break this place to hell. And Remember, The Windmill will turn forever my friends. Keep your heads up, and don't end up dead! Or I'll kill you..." Gerard stated, as he laughed and ran down a long corridor that was split off from the directions that he sent his friends in, and kept running around hallway to hallway, picking off several marine soldiers that were posted on the ship.

Splitting off to Jasper on the path he took, there were several markings that lead towards a somewhat oddly marked direction, Jasper ran down a hallway and slid down the railing of some stairs as he had encountered a large area seeming to be a jungle, Jasper proceeded with much caution, there was a large mixture of noises from animals and footsteps. "This place is rubbing me the wrong way..." As Jasper heard a swift shifting and rustling through the tree tops, before he heard someone calling out to him, "Tally Ho! Good day young chap, how do you do?" As Jasper stopped in his tracks to see a man standing on top of a tree branch. On his body seemed to be a very strangely made tuxedo compared to the others he's seen, it being sleeveless with shorts and hiking boots instead of the usual slim fits and dress shoes. He was wearing a large fedora with a feather, circular glasses and a rather impressive mustache and beard combo. The man jumped down and slipping a strangely engineered rifle from his back, and pointed it at Jasper, locking his aim on him, "I believe you're in a place where you don't quite belong. I'd suggest you leave on the double!" He said, his voice having somewhat of a British tone to it. Jasper pulled two pistols from his jacket and held them so one was pressed back to his chest, and the other was extended with his arm and pointed at the man, "That's a fancy looking gun you've got there. It'd be a nice piece of treasure to take with me. Names Jasper Evans..."

As Jasper remarked, he brushed his wrist to his nose, and smiled. The gentleman chuckled happily, and loaded his rifle in mere seconds, "My name is Archibald the 3rd! Huntsman of the CP-8! Arm yourself well, you'll be cheese by the end of this fight!" As he said that, he quickly fired off five rounds at Jasper in which Jasper replied with firing two of his shots that intercepted four of Archibald's, Jasper used that to slip into the trees, reloading his weapons as fast as possible before he felt himself being lifted off the ground by a net, "What the hell is this shit!?" Jasper struggled around, in the net trap which gave Archibald a laugh, "Good show mate! Jolly good show! I guess animals aren't the only things I'll be shooting down tonight!" Archibald proclaimed, pointing his rifle at Jasper. Thinking as quickly as he could, Jasper slipped a blade from his sleeve and cut the knots of the rope as fast as he could, but Archibald fired off several rounds into the net, hitting Jasper with two before he fell from the net. With a loud groan in pain, Jasper rolled away from Archibald and tossed three throwing knives at him. With ease, Archibald dodged them and begun to reload his gun, "I see! So you're still walking after that? I hit your your muscles and yet, not a stagger? Good show mate!" Jasper, felt the bullets being pushed through his body out with his abilities, as he sighed heavily and nodded. "Damned right, I possess a power that makes my body so much more efficient in battle!" As Jasper said that, he slipped across the trees from the top and above Archibald as fast as he could and tossed a knife down at him, as silent as he could Jasper moved with this assault, striking Archibald in the wrist. "Oh my! That wasn't nice at all, you bloody trickster!" Archibald removed the knife from body, and tossed it to the tree. Jasper was already hidden in the shadows of the trees as he slowly recovered from the bullet wounds.

"Well then young one, Seeing as you're a bloody demon fruit user! I'll have to use my special rounds!" Archibald chuckled, loading a different color of rifle rounds into his gun, and dashing around the forestry, Jasper kneed in a bush now, he thought. 'Don't tell me...' As he said that, he finished reloading as fast as he could. Suddenly, a bird flapped and 'cawed' in the bush, flying away from Jasper as he growled knowing his position was given away, he groaned a 'shit!' trying to slip from his position to another, but like lightning Archibald was on his tail firing at him and hitting him in the arm, before Jasper performed a complete barrel roll to the next bushes, and slowly feeling faint as he kept dashing with what energy he had. "W-what the hell did he..?" Body tumbling against a tree, before he could finish his sentence. Jasper panted, and begun to take one of his knives and carve the bullet out of him. The bullet a strange color from before, "Just as I thought... sea stone." Jasper armed his pistols, and ran out firing madly as Archibald dodged several, but didn't see that one of them was an explosive round, as the lead bullet hit the tree it exploded against it, causing several trees to tumble over at him. "Sneaky little bugger you!" Retreating from his current position, and backing up, Archibald didn't see that Jasper was rushing behind him and smirking, "Get ready!" Jasper crouched behind him, and curved his palms around each other and ramming them into Archibald's back, "Silence Step! Rising Combination!" As Jasper delivering the devastating strike, he used his ability once more to harden his skin and bones causing the blow to pack an even greater punch, he smacked his hands hard enough to send Archibald flying across the forest, and then dropped his coat off his shoulders, also altering his leg muscles and bones to make himself run even faster than before, Jasper made it just past Archibald's falling body and jumped to meet up, drop kicking his chest into a second launch into a tree, breaking it in two. As Jasper landed on the ground, he panted heavily and groaned as it pained him to shift his body as quickly as he did, the process of returning them to normal was painstaking, Jasper tried to mind the pain seeing that Archibald was rising from the tree. As he pointed a pistol at Jasper, "I-I've had enough of you. You've caught me more than off guard with your cheap tricks, you're bloody dead now!" As he said that, he placed the gun at Jasper and firing at him once more, Jasper trying his fastest to fall backward, but the bullet traveling too fast hit him in the chest and knocked him backward.

Falling back and couching blood from the wound, Jasper tried to recover it as fast as possible to move again. As he could, and watched as Archibald came towards him, Jasper's eyes flashed wide as he would pull a special throwing dagger from his sleeve and pointed his gun at Archibald, firing off another explosive round. Side stepping the bullet, Archibald continued towards him as he the round exploded against a couple of trees, while Jasper flung his dagger into the direction, as it was glimmering with something wrapped around the end, the dagger flung to and wrapped around one of the broken ones, "Still trying to fight for your life, aye? You're truly one to remember, I think I'll mount you on the wall in a special place. Hanging. By. Your. Di-" As Archibald saw Jasper pulling the string at his wrist, he saw the large tree's tumbling down at him. The trees were now rushing down, as Jasper screamed, "Timber motherfucker!" Rolling down the hill beside the place he was laying, Archibald screaming at what has happened, he was now buried under a pile of rather large trees.

Jasper laid there in the patch of grass for a second, catching his breath as he laughed softly to himself and reached for another knife in his pocket, and rolled his eyes, "This is going to be a bitch..." As he jammed the knife into his chest, and groaned loudly as his flesh and being ripped apart by the knife, he coughed blood and tried healing himself at the same time. Jasper ripped the bullet out of his chest, and tossed it to the ground with a loud scream of agony. "S-son of a bitch...!" As he sat there for a while panting and letting his skin and the flesh wound heal itself, he reached into his vest, pulling out a roll of bandages for the cuts. Taking his time to patch himself up, he said after taking roughly a half hour to finish with all of his wounds to keep the blood from flowing out, Jasper also walked over to Archibald's rifle and tossing it over his shoulder, "Thanks for the gun... ol' chap..." As he walked past the full forested area, almost limping he exited the area and kept his search going.

_[Meanwhile...]_

Rio was rushing down corridor to corridor, cutting doors open one after another, trying to look for the destination he was set to, "Come on, come on! I know this engine room has to be close." Rio spoke to himself, searching door to door, he grumbled as he was getting bitterly annoyed, until he reached one final door in the hallway that was closed by paper sliding doors. "This can't be normal..." As Rio slid the doorway open and walked inside, seeing a man sitting in the center of a coy pond, humming gently to himself. "Ah, Nice to see you come friend. I suppose you wouldn't like to sit down and have a nice little session of haiku exchange?" As the man rose, he brought two katana to his sides and grabbing them tightly. Rio following the lead of the man, "Well then, you're my kind of opponent. I bow to you sir." Rio dipped his chest forward, and ripped his blade from it's sheath and stood at the ready, "Let's get this over and done with." As the man stood there, he pointed his finger at Rio and disappeared in a swift second just like his associate did, flashing out of plain sight and without a trace as he appeared behind Rio, "Soru... with a little Shigan..." As he said that, he jabbed his finger into Rio's back several times causing his finger to pierce the skin and almost like his fingers were turned into small blades. As quickly as he could, Rio tucked and rolled forward as blood poured to the ground, he shivered in pain at the strike, "Fuck did you just do to me...!?"

The man stood in a most posturing position, as he could clearly be seen as an older gentleman wearing a samurai like chest plate with his hair tied in a ponytail hanging down his back, his left eye covered in an eye patch, lips covered in a large Fu Man Chu and once again, wearing a tuxedo just like the rest of their group. The man seemed rather dangerous just from the techniques he was using, Rio used his time to draw his blade and tossed it at the man and watched as the man reported once again as he was now above Rio with his blade stabbing down at him as Rio moved his body aside at the split second the blade was about to slam down into him. Rio gripped the blade's point and used his ability to increase the temperature in his palm to the point where the blade was melting in his blade to the floor as fast as he could, the temperature was rising to the point where he couldn't sustain it and ripped his palm away from the sword. "Oh I see you're a fruit possessor and you've managed to disarm one of my blades. Most admirable." Rio rolled out of the way, and crawled over to his blade that was stabbed into the wall, watching as the man released his second blade from it's sheath and walked towards Rio as he swung his blade at him they collided for a second, before Rio's overwhelming physical strength begun to kick in pushing back the man as well, "Now... before I cut you in half, tell me your name samurai!" Rio boldly stated. The man rubbed his beard trying to push Rio back with his own strength, "Hisashi, Hisashi Asashin." The man pushed him forward, and sent him back. Rio caught his footing and smirked, " Very nice. I like where this could go." Hisashi walked past his coy pond and to the wall at the back of the room, as he grabbed another sliding door, and revealed a room full of swords, bows, axes, spears and much more all in an arranged armory like state. "Let the games begin..." Hisashi stated, rushing into the room and stabbing his blade into the ground, grabbing two swords, "Let's start with the basics!" tossing those two blades at Rio at a most remarkable speed. He'd avoided them with much ease and a watchful eye. Hisashi had tossed another spear towards Rio while he wasn't look, at that moment the spear cut his shoulder and jammed into the wall. "You think you're one crafty fucker!" Rio stated to him, as he moved out of the range of the weapons once again rushing towards Hisashi.

Seeing him coming once again, Hisashi drew a bow as fast he Rio has even see and launched an arrow at him, Rio over course with cat like reflexes cut the arrow in two, which gave him an opening. After several slashes at Hisashi, Rio's assault on the man was failing. "Stand still you bastard!" He growled out with rage as he grew tired of that swift movement, Hisashi was now at the top of one of the shelves firing arrow after arrow at Rio, him dodging them to the best of his speed. "Hohoho, Not bad Bladed Swan!" Hisashi stated, disappearing once again and grabbed an ax trying to slam it down on Rio, As he saw him coming at him again and rolled out of the way, as he dropped the ax and laughed softly.

Rio growing ever so impatient, he took hold of his blade tightly and gripping it harder as he growled feeling the heat in his body rise again, Rio gave his gave a heavy sweep that was so strong the very air was cut by it sending a slash through the blade casings, the air itself collecting the heat off of his body, making it a scolding hot slash of air. The weapons begun to slowly melt for a few seconds as Hisashi covered himself and took the slash straight forward, it giving him a blade lash across the chest and the heat burning and searing it shut. "W-what in the world...? Bladed Swan! Tell me what you've done!" Rio stood there in surprise at what he's done on his own, but only decided to use this for his own advantage. Rio slashed at him several more times after that, he could feel his own sword taking damage from the fruit ability, the heated slashes were only barely making contact on Hisashi. He was using the same flashing techniques over and over, after a while Rio could hear panting coming from behind him as he smiled, "You're finished now!" He jumped through the weapon shelf behind him, as he saw Hisashi pressed to them wall, and rose his sword high in the air, "Now sear in hell!" As he said that, another burning slash was sent across Hisashi's chest, causing even his armored chest plate to melt against his skin, "Gaaaaaah!" Was heard as evaporated blood and burned skin was heard from Hisashi, soon passing out against the wall, as Rio dropped his semi-melted sword, and grabbed another one of Hisashi's preparing to walk out of the room, turning back and smirking, "Consider yourself... slumped over. Later ya bastard..." with a trail of blood pouring from his back, Rio fell against the wall and groaned, "Fuck... I can't believe this he got that many hits on me..." Before he could realize it, there was an arrow in his lower back. Rio screamed from the utter pain of it, as Hisashi was standing there with a bow at the ready, barely conscious as they both crawled to each other in pain and barely able to move. Rio and Hisashi rose to their feet, and dropped their weaponry, "O-one last strike... Bladed Swan..." Hisashi said balling his fist at Rio.

nodded shakily as he ripped the arrow out of his back as more blood spilled to the floor, he balled his fist, as smoke rose from his very skin and the heat building up and Hisashi he growled, rushing at him quick. Hisashi doing the same, they both rose their fists to strike each other, "Soru!" "Meltdown!" As they both struck each other, Rio could feel his jaw breaking and blood flying from his mouth, as Hisashi feeling his face burning and slightly melting with the impact with the air around it, as it seared him. They both fell back, and crashed to the ground, "V-very nice..." As Hisashi finally reached his conclusion, passing out on the floor. Rio laid there for a minute and thought to himself, 'Ain't this about a bitch... I can't even speak. Damnit...' He laid there, grabbing his jaw and trying to crack it around and resting after fighting a much more admirable opponent.

_[Later on in another side of the ship...]_

Gerard closed his eyes, and sighed heavily getting a chilled feeling from his friends but smiled and kept running, "I know you guys have gone through hell with me over these years... I know you're going to finish this! " As he said that, he swung his arms forward and let the wind push him through the air and using the wind beneath his feet to make him glide, as he zipped through the hallways. After a while of surfing through the air, he finally crashed into another being grabbing onto the person and groaning, "Ah! What the hell!" Both of them said as Gerard saw he crashed into Lily, he waved to her and blinked, "Top of the morning, beautiful weather we have here..." Lily groaned with a light blush, she screamed, "Get the hell off you air head!" As there was a loud whip cracking in the hallway, followed by Gerard screaming, the two had reconciled in the corridor, still on their way to looking for the schematics of the legendary war machine, Steel Abyss...

**To be continued...**


	5. Chapter 5: Secrets

**_Continuing in the last chapter…_**

* * *

Gerard and Lily remained in their hidden position in the corridor, speaking silently as to not draw any attention to themselves. "So, What brought you here? I thought you were helping the old man." Gerard stated curiously, as he rubbed his whip lashes across his arms and chest. Lily only sat there in silence as she shook her head.

"I should have stuck back with him… I don't know if he can take on Baron…" she said in a shaky, hushed tone. This made Gerard worry about what she meant, as he took hold of her shoulders and begun shaking her back and forth, "What do you mean by that!? Is Old man Roushi going to be okay!?" He asked before she sent her hand across his face, tears running down her cheeks as she sat there in silence. Gerard's expression shifted to a somewhat neutral one, before rising from the shadows. "Nevermind, Roushi will be fine. And we will get the map back for him." This time Lily rose up and sent her fist into his face sending Gerard slamming into the wall with a loud thud against the metal. "What the hell do you know!? These people are monsters! They won't spare Roushi! Especially considering his past… They will kill him and take glory in that murder… These people are ruthless." She stated in a pained tone, her body going limp against the wall opposite of the one she knocked Gerard into.

He rose from the floor, as he dusted himself off and smirked at her, "That old man's windmill ain't done turning yet. You've got to have more faith than that if you're going to follow us around." She looked up in shock at his confidence, despite the words she spoke to him. Lily remained silent, as she grasped her whip from the ground. Gerard walked down the corridor as he hummed a happy tune, she was still shocked by his sudden support in Roushi. After a minute or two of walking, she stopped him again and sighed, "I'm sorry for hitting you, I just… " Gerard cut her off with a laugh, before turning around and shaking his head, "Don't sweat it! That was nothing compared to what Rio has done in the past to punish me and Jasper!" His words full of pride and life, as he kept down the hallway, his words put a small giggle to her lips as they both held their heads up in confidence in all of their allies. Gerard finally reaching the end of the hallway and observing a map of the entire ship, and rubbed his head softly in thought, "So… Rio was heading in the right direction, and it seems that we are. But, Jasper is heading for something that looks very strange…" He said in a curious tone, turning back towards Lily and pointing towards the location that Jasper ran down.

She approached the map, sharply inspecting the routes and patterns of the mapping, her eyes flashed open as she stepped back and covered her lips in surprise, shaking her head in a frightened manner, "Oh this isn't good at all… Jasper is in danger…" She said as she hurried down the hallway and towards the correct intersecting corridor where Jasper should be heading down to reach the point that has been her in such a frightened state. Before she could get anywhere, she would feel a current of wind gather around her, picking her up and off of her feet and carrying her back to map. "H-hey let me down! We have to go!" She struggled around trying to get out of the current, shaking and stirring in the air. Gerard dropped her down on her behind, and shook his head. "You disappoint me Lily, You doubt my crewmates way too much. Just tell me where to find Drake…" A smirk dashed across his face, trying to assure her that she could relax and trust Jasper's skills. She nodded once again, pointing towards another location in the map. "There… he is there…" Gerard took hold of her hand and pulled her in the direction of the terrain room she pointed. As the both remained in silence, Lily was the one lost on the thought of fear of the upcoming challenges that the Windmill Pirates had to face in this hell of a prison.

_[Meanwhile…]_

"Gaaaah!" Screams and crashes heard left and right, smacking of fist to flesh over and over, as the battle between Baron and Roushi raged on both of the men stood there in a much exhausted state. "So old man… You could manage to match the power of my mustache… You are a truly admirable opponent. But sooner or later, you're going to have to lay down old man!" Baron exclaimed as he rushed towards Roushi, swinging his fists with much swiftness. Roushi taking his focus and dodging every fist he could, "You're thrashing is futile, you damned barbarian!" As he pushed forward, Roushi delivered a devastating Haymaker to Baron's jaw and caused him to push back, and groan from the pain before letting it slip into a light chuckle, "Tis but a scratch…!" Baron's words left Roushi in confusion about how this was nothing to him. Baron rushed back towards him, the men back and forth boxing at each other sending large fist collisions into their bodies. The villagers watching in shock and amazement as they saw how hard Roushi was fighting for them, it made them happy to be under the guard of the old geezer. After a while, some of the children moved from the arms of their parents, and raising their fists in cheer for Roushi, "Get him Tea man!" "Yeah, knock him out!" "Kick his butt off the island!" All the children, giving their input to cheer him on. Roushi's smirk grew knowing his villagers were behind him in his struggle, he flexed his muscles and rushed at Baron dishing out a large combination of jabs, punches and slugs on Baron. Still standing there snickering at the hits with groans in between the impacts, as Baron took a push forward hitting Roushi every few hits or so, both of them still wrecking at one another with little to no let up.

After a while, Baron took a jump backward from Roushi and brushed off his shoulders, cracking his knuckles, and shaking his head. "You're a tough old geezer, I'll give you that! But let's see if you can handle me stepping it up a notch!" He said with a confident tone. Baron slammed his fists into the earth, releasing a loud growl as he felt his body pulsating and expanding, the hair from his mustache starting to grow from his lip and spread across his face, chest, arms, and legs. As Roushi stood back from the shock that Baron was a Zoan fruit user, he only prepared himself for the worst. Baron's transformation didn't stop there, his hands turned into a hoof like shape, and his skull starting to push out horns that curved into a spiralling shape. After some time, the horns fully taking shape on his head, Baron's growling grew deeper as his lips pushed forward and more teeth formed in his motion. His body's transformation was almost complete, causing Roushi much confusion. "Demon fruit…" He remarked as he heard Baron release a loud animal like scream, "Hoho now you're about to see what it feels like to have a baaad day!" Baron stated as he rushed at Roushi much faster than before, while dropped down on all fours, his hoof was sent smashing into Roushi's stomach causing him to stagger slightly. "Gahh… you damned beast" He groaned in pain as an imprint with several cuts was left on the impact point. Roushi readied himself seeing another charge coming on, he used all of his strength to grab Baron by the horns and attempting to lifting him in the air, pushing his boundary as it is, Baron's body was far too heavy. "Think again geezer!" Baron's horns started to buck at Roushi, pushing him back after several thrusts. Baron's charge eventually broke Roushi into another stagger, as Baron took the initiative to rise Roushi off of the ground, twirl him around a few times, and toss him into one of the palm trees on the beach. The kids in the crowd gasped, and panicked in horror as they saw him being tossed like a rag doll, they all vocalized their cheering even louder, "COME ON GRANDPA ROUSHI! DO IT!" "GET UP! GET UP!" Every one of them having their own little cheer for him, Roushi's spirit was far from crushed at that point in the battle.

Baron snorted in anger, turning to the children of the village and kicking up dust behind him while still on all fours,this was the sign of another charge. "You all are becoming such a bother to this! I think I'll put an end to you all!" Baron screamed, as he pushed up a large chunk of sand from his charge once again, running towards the village children. Their parents taking them tight and trying to protect them from the impending threat. Roushi's eyes filled with anger and fear, as he raised his hand running for them, "STOP NOW BEAST!" with that a large energy was felt around them, the people in the village stood motionless from the unknown force, some even fainted. Baron's body stopped in place, seeing that he felt the overwhelming force as well, his charge was at a halt as he remained there in shock. "D-don't tell me… you possess that…!" fear now in the tone of Baron. Roushi rushed over to Baron, using nothing but his brute strength to lift baron above his head, sending him pile driven into the sand behind him. Groaning in pain, Baron laid against the sand and watched Roushi above, as his eyes showed a strong essence of anger, Baron snickered at the look on his face before trying to move from the spot. Roushi wasn't accepting this, his foot rose from the sand and dropped down on Baron's chest making him plant back into the ground with a loud thump, Roushi panted in rage. "You tried to hurt these children… these innocent children…! You could have ended so many lives… Kids who could grown into fine adults. To cure illness, those who could bring so much peace to this world, could save lives…! And you were about to take them away!? I will show you the meaning of a true beast!" With his statement, his muscle pulsated and flexed, causing Baron to push further into the ground. Roushi's eyes no rolling to the back of his head and his body expanding, everyone around him watching in amazement and curiosity as they saw Roushi was going through a transformation as well…

_[Back to our friend Jasper…]_

"Damn this thing is overly complicated…" Jasper said as he sat against a wall, trying to figure out the mechanics of the rifle that he stole from an unconscious Archibald. Jasper was still slightly wounded from the battle, his chest and the other places he had to cut rifle rounds out of were now bandaged and treated temporarily, still sitting against the wall. "Man that sea stone is really screwing with me…" Running his fingers across his wounds, it bothered him even more at the silence of the area. He's sat there speculating about this area, "I don't know what I should do next, Gerard told me to look for Drake's whereabouts but I haven't seen anything at all, this is bullshit." Jasper pushed himself off of the floor, giving out a loud groan and sighing as he could walk steadily and move his limbs properly. Starting his path down the hallway with the new rifle strapped on his body, he sighed looking forward and seeing another strange door before him, followed by some loud cabaret music, "oh this shit is going to be a riot!" Jasper hurried up to the door, as he took hold of the knob and pushed the door open seeing a simply miraculous sight.

As the music was no roaring in the doorway as before Jasper's eyes was a woman flowing across the room, a woman in red heels with a long red dress with a split going up the left leg, exposing it with every twist and turn she made, as she swayed across the floor. Her eyes closed and painted in a light purple, her hair was long and silver a soft glimmer to it, her skin a light peach tone, and her lips coated in silver as well. They woman gracefully slid across the floor, her eyes remaining shut as she hummed away to the turn of the song before it came to an end after a few more shakes and rocks of her hips, as she bowed to Jasper. "Good day sir, care to join me for a dance?" She said giving a soft wink of her now open, crystal blue colored eyes, giving off a delicious french accent.

Jasper instantly turned on his charm the second her lips parted with her words, he stepped forward and slid across the floor with his hand out to take hold of her's and grinned softly, "I'd love to dance, it would be an honor." Jasper said letting his soft tone give way to his approach, she quickly rose from her bow and took her hand to Jasper's shoulder as another song begun to play on a musical Den Den Mushi, it was tune of salsa music genre. Jasper took the opportunity, and swung her off of her feet as she caught her own balance she giggled and took a step forward, him following her took those motions back and forth for a while, until she spoke "You are quite dancer, to match me." she remarked to him, batting her eyelashes at him. Jasper snickered, swaying them back and forth, he noticed they were speeding up to the sound of the music. "But of course! I've taught myself over the years, you might have heard of me. Jasper Evans, my dear maiden." She let off another giggle, before whispering back, "Lucia… Lucia Gorz. Pleased." with that, Jasper's grin soar to new heights, he took the moment in the song to take her hand and twirl her skillfully across the floor to the other side of the room, Lucia's arms rose in a flaring manner as she covered her lips giggling madly, "Muy Buena! You deserve a kiss for that performance." this made Jasper hurry to her with his arms branched out wide, Lucia simply smirked as her lips begun to glow as her hands and lips moved in a blowing gesture as a large transparent lipstick kiss flew towards Jasper, his eyes flashed open wide as he saw that it was hurling towards him quickly. Jasper took the time to roll out of the way just in time, he felt an explosion behind him as the lipstick print had destroyed the door and almost all of the entrance, he sighed. "Damnit! I knew it was too good to be true…" Jasper slipped his hands into his vest, pulling out three throwing knives. Lucia's hips sway lightly as she walked closer to Jasper, she shook her head in disappointment, "Oh honey this just won't do. You can't expect to get a second dance with such disrespect." As she spoke to him teasingly, her hand pushed back to her lips as she blew another lipstick print at time, this time faster than before as it almost made impact with Jasper, he rolled in time being caught in only a fraction of the blast, his coat was now ripped on the edges.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Jasper pulled his pistol, firing off at her quickly trying to nail at least one shot in Lucia, she disappeared before his very eyes. It was clear she was using the same technique that the other's were using before, Lucia spoke softly as she was now behind him, "I'll let you in on a little secret… I possess the Kiss Kiss Fruit…." This brought a shock to Jasper as he heard her getting ready to blow another kiss, this time it was at point blank, it was a staticy sound coming off of her lips, following the bright light she released. The lipstick print was sent, hitting Jasper's back, as a large surge of electricity was sent through his body, "Ahhhhh!" He screamed in agony, as he dropped to the ground and twitched with smoke rising from his body. Jasper went silent for a second as his hat dropped beside him, still breathing and panting heavily, "Y-you…"

"Me? You witnessed one of the many things my power can do… You should be scared… A woman's kiss is enough to melt any man." She said, as she motioned to her lips once again. Jasper took the initiative and tossed one of his knives at her, the knife just barely hit her as she felt a palm thrust into her chest hard, as Jasper's face lit up red. He had dashed from the floor using his tremendous speed, and trying to strike her and send her back. Lucia stumbled back holding her breast, as Jasper touched it with his strike, her face painted red as well, "H-How dare you! Don't you know it's rude to shove your hand into a woman's chest so boldly! You must be punished!" she said in an enraged tone, as she used the same disappearing ability, and appeared in front of Jasper sending her foot his face and launching him backward before again rushing to him and dropped her heel against his chest, and grinding the end of it into him. "Horrible perverted man!" She said, stepping on his chest over and over as Jasper was laying there and coughing blood, she had him immobilized for a moment. "B-blue… with yellow polka dots…" She stopped for a moment hearing what Jasper muttered, she was confused. "What did you just say!?" Jasper snickered and pointed up her dress, "Blue… with yellow polka- Gaaah!" he was cut off as Lucia blushed harder, and stomped harder against his chest. "Insignificant! Incellent! Pathetic! This is your demise pervert!" she kicked his side hard enough to lift him off the ground and cause him to tumble over. Lucia pressed her hand to her lips once again, this time the light was brighter as he sent another lipstick print at Jasper, this time it had a green tint to it. He didn't bother to try and take another head on, he pushed his body and hurried away from the spot he was kicked in, and watched as the floor slowly begun to corrode away. He stared in horror seeing the floor was just melting away, Lucia didn't give him anytime to recover from the last attack, and sent another three flying at him. "Dodge this sugar! Triple Flirt!" There was a different color one red, one blue, and one yellow. As Jasper stepped past one of them as he was hit with the third one, and feeling another large electric surge through his body and dropping the knives he had in his other hand. Dropping down to his knee, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. "S-shit… the wounds from my last fight…" he felt them ripping open with all the hasty movements to dodge the lipstick prints, Jasper stopped to think.

Lucia was slowly approaching Jasper, and shaking her head. "This is your last dance…" Jasper smirked with an amazing thought, he ripped his shirt open exposing muscular and masculine chest, before grabbing another smoke bomb from his vest and tossed it to the ground, creating a bursting against the floor. As Lucia panicked and looked around for where he could, "Show yourself cowa-Ahhh!" she shrieked as she felt a blade running across her skin and cutting the fabric of her dress in multiple places she covered herself as quickly as she could, she felt shifting in the smoke as Jasper stepped through it. "P-perhaps, we can talk about this?" Her words were followed by silence, as she felt grabbing and touching across her body. Releasing soft shrieks of pleasure, the smoke was covered as a silhouette was seen before her, she cheeks blistered in red, Jasper whispered. "Assassins… work in the dark, to penetrate the light… Thus this dance ends…" He said as Lucia let out an even louder noise, followed by a pleased panting noise and her body collapsed to the floor, Jasper emerged from the smoke and shroud, placing his hat back on his head and fixed his shirt, "I think my work here is done…"

Lucia laid there in the remains of her clothing with a blushing bride expression on her face, and giggling madly, "N-never has a man defeated me in this manner… " Lucia slowly passed out the floor with her face as red as a tomato, Jasper took his leave as the Den Den Mushi finished playing the song and the room grew silent, "Nothing to it." He tightened the rifle on his shoulder again, and groaned before leaving the room and slamming his head against the wall several times, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck! I was supposed to find out where Drake is wasn't I…?"

_[Meanwhile at the Island…]_

The beach was still quaking and rumbling in the scene of the fight between Roushi and Baron, there was a large shriek and scream coming from the old man, still standing above knocked down Baron. Roushi was still making his metamorphosis. As his muscles and veins pulsated as it expanded and grew in size, along with that his eyes were now turning a dark shade of red after his pupil was nowhere in the eye. His remaining hair across his body, grew across the rest of his body, it grew to every inch of skin that there possibly could be on his body. The hair begun to change to a bright yellow tint, his feet and hands shifted to the shape of an ape's along with a tail pushing through the back of his pants and below his lower back. His mouth now stretching out to the same ape like shape as the side of his body, his hair now full of longer yellow streams of hair, his mouth stretching open wide with a tremendous call of the wild, letting his roar be known. "Prepare yourself Barooooooooooon!" Roushi beat his fists against his chest, he revealed himself to be another Zoan fruit user.

Baron's eyes open wide, watching the astonishing sight before him, he simply trembled trying to get out from under Roushi, "L-let me up you damned geezer!" Baron was punching and smashing at Roushi's leg trying to knock him over. Roushi wasn't phrasing a single bit, "You want up? I'll give you up!" Roushi slammed his hands against Baron's chest ripping him from the ground and slamming him against the sand back and forth, over and over. He roared and screamed, as Baron groaned in pain as the impacts grew with each slam. "Let's go for a swing shall we!?" Roushi grabbed Baron tighter in his hands, turning in a right rotational formation and picked up a large speed, before he flung Baron out of his hands and into the air above the navy war ship. Roushi launched himself off of the sandy surface and followed Baron high into the air, as Baron saw Roushi coming his eyes widened in fear. Roushi took hold of him by his waist from underneath him, as he grabbed him into a suplex position and roaring, "Ape Drum!" Roushi's assault was announced! He let gravity drop them both down at high speeds, before they hit the wooden deck, Roushi dropped Baron dead on the back of his neck and released a powerful roar that sent a large shockwave throughout the area. There was several navy soldier's upon the deck of the ship, they caught the collision force of the attack and were sent flying back, some off the edge of the boat. Roushi removed himself from the crater of wood he made, Roushi stepped back a few feet and observed. "Guess that was all you could muster up." Roushi turned away each and everyone of his steps making a crack in the wood, he sighed heavily. Right before he could think anything was safe, He felt a set of horns smashing into his back and sending him slamming into several cannons, the ramming was followed by a harsh laugher. "You damned monkey… You think you've caught me off guard that easily!? That hurt like a couple son's of bitches, but it ain't enough to wreck me!" Baron rushed at Roushi again, Roushi caught his footing as soon as he could and grabbed Baron by the horns. They were set into another deadlock, groaning to push one another back and take advantage of the stagger, "You weren't part of Gol's crew back in the days for nothing I see!" Baron extracted, as he was pushing harder to try and force Roushi off the boat, Roushi himself simply replying with, "Me ending up on Gol's crew is nothing to be spoken of! It is wasted tea down the drain now!" Roushi begun pushing back harder, as the mention of his past threw him into a larger frustration. Baron wasn't sure of the situation as he snorted and growled, "Men! Open fire!" As there was a line up of soldier's behind cannons, pointing standard rifles at Roushi. His blood red eyes glew in rage as he saw the firearms being pointed at him, "You dirty bastard!" Roushi growled heavily as his jaws pared widely, as he went to drop his jaws on Baron's shoulder biting into it, his sharp monstrous teeth rippled the flesh like paper, as the bullets flew into Roushi's skin, one after another. He was being showered in gunfire, as blood poured into his furr some of them just bouncing off of his roughly skin, but the ones unfortunate enough to penetrate, made blood coat Roushi's fur with heavy screams of pain, Roushi's jaws sunk in deeper as he ripped them out and watched as there was blood dripping out, Baron screamed in bloody horror. "There was a reason I was on Gol's crew! Gol changed my life! Never try and punish a man for a blessing! Gol changed this world for the better!"

_[Flashback… Years before Gol's death…]_

"Come back here you damned bum! You're worthless trash!" This was being screamed by a vendor towards a young man with dark blonde hair, it was a Younger Roushi. He ran away from the show with a handful of tools and trinkets, as he was badly hurt in the struggle to get away from the vendor, Roushi was running through the forest as fast as he could before he reached a small shack by the edge of the water. There was also a damaged ship beside the small shack, it was beaten and broken. "Alright… Let's get to work then shall we?" Roushi said as he was outside the shack, there were two small girls inside of the shack, one of them with an eyepatch over their eye and the other covered in bandages from her legs to her waist, they both rushed towards him and hugged him tightly, :"Okay grandpa Roushi!" They both giggled and jumped in excitement. Roushi laughed along with the adorable little munchkins, as he carried the toolbox over to the boat and soon followed the two girls, Roushi told them step by step over the course of the rest of that day, what to do and not to do about fixing and repairing the ship, they spent a lovely day fooling around with each other. As night slowly came upon them, they had fixed the basics of the ship. The girls were in the sand asleep, with smiles on their little faces, that put a smile on Roushi's face as well. Before he heard a rustling in the bushes,"Who goes there!?" Roush readied himself with a wrench in hand, as he watched a shadowy figure walk out of the bushes. "Good day, or night should I say? You've got a mighty fine vessel you've got there…" The man emerged from the shadows, revealing himself to be Gol D. Roger. Still in surprise of the sudden visitor, Roushi wasn't sure who he was at the time. "This boat is for these kids to leave and have home… I refuse to let you take that away from them." Roushi boldly stated in the face of Gol. It impressed him, he turned away and laughed, "Join my crew. Your spunk is what I need to change this world, and a good pair of hands to fix a boat aren't bad to have around as well." Gol laughed even more disappearing into the night.

Roushi was left puzzled and in nothing but questions, he sat up the rest of the night watching vigilantly in the shadows incase that man decided to return at any point while him and the children were asleep. Roushi sat there until the sun was in the peak of the sky. Yawning into his palm, he felt the kids rushing into his lap and giggling "Morning Grandpa Roushi!" "How did you sleep?" "I dreamed about oranges!" They were both of youth and life, Roushi held them tight and smiled , "Oh you girls will drive me over the edge with all these questions." They both laughed at his words, calling him silly and old man between their questions. Roushi set them down and sighed quietly, "Tomorrow is the day girls. I've lived here with you for two years now, and you've got families to go home to. Are you excited!?" They both stopped for a second, and smiled at him with tears in their eyes. They raised their fists in cheer, "Y-yeah… We're ready grandpa…" Their words were shaky, but their smiles were strong. Roushi took hold of the girls again, as tears rolled down his cheeks he held the girls tightly, "Be strong for an old man… I know I can't go with you. But I'll always be with you both. Alice, Kaminka. You have made me a happy man these years and as we part ways tomorrow.' Both of the girls nodded in silence as they smiled, "Thank you Grandpa... For everything." They both grinned widely, clearing tears from their eyes.

Hours later, Kaminka, Alice, and Roushi we sitting around the fire and looking at the finished product of their newly finished vessel and cooking their lunch. Roushi sighed happily, wiping the sweat off of his forehead and chuckled lightly, "Such a beautiful one she is!" "Yeah!" Alice replied, as Roushi placed his hand on her head. 'Click' A sound was heard behind them, Roushi turned his head to see the shopkeeper standing behind them with a gun. Roushi was paralyzed in the fear for the safety of the kids. "What are you doing pointing a gun at children you idiot!?" The shopkeeper took a few step closer and snickered , "You've stolen from my store for the last time you damned bums!" He pointed the gun at them, and smirked. "Let's see you steal something in hell!" as he was about to pull the trigger, Roushi held his am out in plead. "Noooooo!" His screaming released a powerful wave of energy, the same that was on the beach before. This caused Kaminka and Alice to faint, the shopkeeper was paralyzed with his finger shaking on the trigger. Suddenly, another gunshot was heard from behind the man. The shopkeeper dropped to the ground slowly as he was struck in the back, the one who was point blank behind him, was none other than, Gol D Roger. "Hehehe I suppose you surprised me once again… Come with me. I've got quite the plan in mind…" Roushi stood there, shocked, astonished, flabbergasted. He decided he might as well listen to Gol.

_Hours later…_

Kaminka and Alice were still asleep peacefully from the force that overcame them earlier, Gol and Roushi were sitting there by the fire, conversating on the future that Roushi has after sending those girls on their way. "So you're saying… you plan to cross to become the biggest, most notorious pirate? And you need a shipwright? Give me a break." Roushi sighed, rubbing his head and turned to Gol. Gol replied, "Riches, Fame, and Dreams alike! All coming true at a finger's reach! Come with me and these villages won't have to deal another situation like our dead friend there. What do you say?" Gol reached his hand out with a wide grin. Roushi glanced at the dead body, and back at Gol's hand. He made his choice, taking Gol's hand and nodding. "Wise decision… This was a beautiful start to an amazing friendship."

And thus throughout the rest of the night, Gol and Roushi talked away, exchanging offer and arm in the ideals of the future. Roushi took the initiative he could in the middle of the night for the girls, while they were passed out, he loaded them a good three weeks worth of food and fresh water, leaving them warm blankets from the shack and along with multiple changes of clothes. Roushi held both of the girls one last time, before whispering. "Please be safe on your travels… " After kissing both of their foreheads, Roushi sat them down in the boat once again and pushed it softly, letting them drift into the current. Turning his back to the small raft, letting it catch distance from the island, Roushi's heart sank in his chest. He packed what remaining luggage he had and followed Gol back to his ship on the other side of the island, leaving the shack alone to be a reminder of what was.

_[Flashback end]_

"Baron! Gol saved me and those girls that day! He gave me a new life along with a new home! I refuse to let you try and oppress that!" As Roushi rushed back towards Baron, grabbing one of the cannons that was armed beside him and smashed it into Baron, sending him flying into the cavalry lined against the deck of the ship. Roushi pounded his chest one last time, making the usual roars and noises an ape would. As he jumped into the air once again, swing back and forth on the wooden sections of the sails, he flung himself into the air, soaring above the boat and dive bombing back down to the deck, as his fists smashes Baron through the deck of the ship and through three floors of the warship. It was a large enough shockwave to rattle the entire ship, Baron now passed out in a pile of rubble and trampled men. Roushi's form shifted straight back to his human state after he saw the job was done, he panted heavily and shook as blood poured down his body. "Fight children… Fight for a new day!" Roushi raised in fist in cheer for the rest of the group. He gave a smirk and walked away from the passed out Baron, trying to make his way out of the ship.

_[Back to Gerard and Lily…]_

Both of them were standing at the very base of the ship, before a long they found themselves standing at the very door they've been waiting this whole time for, turning to each other. They both pressed their hands against the door, and pushed it open. Awaiting the threat ahead of them…

**_To be continued..._**


	6. Chapter 6: Drake Versus Gerard

**CHAPTER: 6 - Drake Valid Vs. Gerard Hanwell **

* * *

_** And now for the dynamic conclusion…**_

Both of Lily and Gerard were standing at the very base of the ship, before a long they found themselves standing at the very door they've been waiting this whole time for, turning to each other. They both pressed their hands against the door, and pushed it open. Awaiting the threat ahead of them. Bright lights and a wide area was revealed to them. A room filled with metal, bolts, and glimmering mirrors on the ceiling. Lily and Gerard both stepped forward, scanning the room as thoroughly as they could. "This place… It doesn't feel right at all. I don't know who's room this is…" Lily stated, shivers growing against her body. It was somewhat of a natural instinct of her's that always came at the worst times. She closed her eyes, focusing, listening, until she heard a slight laughter from above the mirrors. "Watch out!" She screamed to Gerard, as they both saw something or someone large and clunky smashing through the glass ceiling above, both of them rolling to the opposite sides of one another and covering themselves from the falling glass. Gerard groaned and watched.

"This is as far as you go intruders!" A rough Scottish accent was heard from a large suit of armor, it seemed heavy enough to make a huge dent in the floor, the armor was a bright bronze color with spikes and swirls across the metal. The man seemed to be wielding a lance and a shield with the marking, 'CP-8' on it. The man pounded the lance against the shield, and chuckled heartily, "I hope you all are prepared to be skewered by the power of Justice!" The man quickly rushed at Gerard, before either of them could properly catch their footing. Gerard swiftly pushed his hands together, channeling wind around his arms as he watched the man charging spear first at him, he glared at the assaulter and smirked, "Wind!" Before he could finish, a large whip struck across the man's face and knocking him against the ground with a large thump from the armor. Gerard stood there in shock, watching as the whip dropped to the floor, Lily was glaring at him and panting softly and fixing her hair, "Metallic fuck… Don't you have any respect for your superiors!?" She screamed pulling the whip back, and extending her arm out and holding on to the other end of the whip. The man rose from the ground with an immensely angered expression as there was a trail of blood running down his cheek, "How dare you, you damned wretch!" He slammed his lance into the ground enough to make the ground shake, Gerard and Lily both almost losing their footing once again to the ravaging, Lily would try again to stop her movements before turning her head to see a large shield being sent into the side of her head, as she was sent spiralling through the air and tumbled against the ground with a loud crash, Gerard watched in horror, "Lily! Bastard..!" Gerard dashed towards the man, using the wind around his feet to glide around the surface of the earth, as he brought his leg up into the air, ready to send the man flying before Lily raised her voice, "Stop! Don't touch him!" Gerard stopped abruptly before, looking over at Lily in confusion using the wind around him to keep him afloat, "W-what the hell do you mean stop!?" Lily stood up shakily, wiping the blood trail off of the side of her lip, grinning widely, "He's mine…" A new flame burned in her eyes, it was scornful and excited, devilish and hatefilled, she was excited now. Gerard remained there in confusion, as he cleared his throat, "You don't get off on this do you…?" He asked before, he felt a large slab of metal slamming against him, and sending him flying to the other side of the room, and tumbling against the ground with a soft groan, "Son of a bitch…" Gerard collected himself and panted, sitting up on the ground and simply observing.

Lily glared at the man, seeing that he striked Gerard the same way as her, she shook her head with displeasure, "You're about to really regret that you shiny pissant…" Lily twirled her whip in her hand, as she gave a dash throws him and dashed around the lance to the side of him. The man kept up with every moment of her on his eye, as he switched his body around and tried swinging the lance at her this time, she used what time she could to jump over the lance and shift back from the shield swing as well, before sending her whip lashing across his arm, leaving a large dent and slash in his armor. He jumped backward shaking his head at her, "How dare you!? You've pierced the armor of the Clad Wolf! Prices must be paid for this travesty! You will feel the wrath of Rodan Kanavan!" As he revealed his name in the blind rage, he rushed at Lily lance forward giving multiple swift jabs and slices of his sharp metal lance. Lily simply keeping her hands at her side, she swayed and danced around the floor avoiding every single jab at him. She gave him a cocky smile, "Is that big metal shish kabob skewer supposed to be intimidating? Give me a break." With those words, it provoked him even more as Lily stopped in place as she felt a sharp pain in her side as she let out a pained shriek. Looking down to the source of the pain, there was now a large blade poking out the side of the lance, it was driven fairly deep inside of her as she let out a small pant, she gripped it tightly ripping it out of her flesh, as she panted harder. "I-It's been a while since I've been cut like that…" Lily looked down at the wound, shaking her head.

Rodan stood there with a cocky smirk painted across his lips, his grin growing even more with the more blood pouring out of Lily, "Foolish woman, You've yet to face a single ounce of my full fur-" "Shut the hell up!" Lily demanded of Rodan, his speech was cut off as she was different now. Her face was in a wide, ear to ear grin. Her eyes showing a deep vibe of death and exhilaration, "You know… my name…?" She asked with giving off a shaky giggle. "W-what…?" Fear was in Rodan's voice with his response. He wasn't pleased with the sight at all, he stepped back slowly, "Do... you... know... my... name? Hmmmm?" She asked one more time, this one sounded a little sweeter than the first with the same twisted tone. Her head now cocked to the side and her smile growing wider, giggles escaping her lips, "What are you going on about!?" Rodan retorted with rage. Lily giggled as her blood pooled around her wound, it wasn't bothering her as much as it was when first inflicted. "They... call me Crimson Lily... The flower that blooms in blood, that glimmers in war... I thrive on this rush... this feeling of pain." She crossed her arms over her chest, and tightened her grip on the whip, as she jumped forward and sent her head dead into his making him stumble back with a groan, "You pitiful bitch...!" Rodan's head was now bruised from the attack. Lily swayed back and forth, giggling and smiling. "Ready to have some fun...?" She asked, as she raised her whip so fast that it caused a heavy lash across the chest of the armor.

Gerard stood idly by, watching everything that happened between the two, hearing everything that was said before him. He was more than shocked at the words that were coming out of Lily's mouth, "I-Is this really her...? No..." Gerard balled his fists and simply watched for the judgment he should make on the matter, he tried his hardest not to interfere. Lily walked closed to Rodan as the blood trail grew with every step she took closer to him. She raised her whip lashing it over and over, Rodan protecting himself with every move he could, but the lashed kept slipping past the shield he put up for him. He shrieked and groaned in pain and shock, as Lily giggled and wildly hurled her whip at him, "Keep up! Keep up! Or you're gunna die! Hahahahahaa!" Lily licked her lips, as he words were now more of a lustfully bashful tone. She was enjoying this feeling more than she should. Gerard's eyes widened in surprise, nothing could come out of his lips, Lily's state of insanity was now overwhelming for even him. Gerard balled his fist and slammed it into the ground, "S-stop it..." He said quietly, and shaking his head.

Lily giggled louder as a soft sound of pleasure slipped through her lips as she felt a rush from lashing her whip the way she was striking Rodan and his armor over and over. "You won't break me you worthless woman!" Rodan pushed past several cracks of the whip as he tried slashing at her with the blade on the side of the lance, it giving her several some light scratches. She dodged as quickly as she could, with each blade that slipped across her skin she let out a pleasured pant, and a giggle. Gerard growled heavily as he rose from the ground, "Stop..." Lily jumped on top of the lance that was being swung and used the time she could to lash him across the face once again, making him drop his lance and fall backwards. She giggled madly, as her tongue drug softly across her lips and grinned wider cracking her whip in her palm, "Now... you're about to see my name rise to it's legend!" She rose her arm up, ready to slice his throat open with the sharp edges of the whip once again, "Stop! Now Lily!" Gerard demanded in a displeased tone. The voice froze her in place, she was shivering from the thought that she had to be talked to by Gerard in that manner, she turned her head and saw him glaring at her as he shook his head, "Are you really letting that slip out of you? That dark past of yours slipping out? You can't let that consume you, I know you aren't that person. You're slowly dying without realizing it!" Gerard pointed down as her feet were almost surrounded by blood. She shook slightly feeling faint from the blood loss, her adrenaline rush not helping in the least, Lily stumbled more as she closed her eyes. "Damnit... Fucking asshole got me that fired up..." Rodan smirked at the opportunity as he took his hand, balling it into a fist and sending it at her stomach, she coughed and hacked up blood, falling backward holding the wound and the spot where she was struck, Lily laid there in a pool of her own blood and panted to the point where it seemed she was in fatal condition. "Lily! Hang in there! Get up!" Gerard cheered for her from the sidelines, seeing that the blood was almost motionless.

"Hehe little scamp couldn't handle the wrath of the mighty Kanavan!" He slammed his fist into his chest giving a wide grin, as he walked past her and towards Gerard. Rodan now smiling from over confidence as he walked towards Gerard grabbing his lance on the way, Gerard clapping his hands toward and glaring in bitter rage, wind begun to rotate around his hands and wrists like a large series of rotating blades, growing and growing. "Ready to die wee man!?" Rodan responses before he was stopped by something wrapping around his leg, immobilizing the movement of the limb. He turned his head to see that it was Lily know kneeling on her ankle, as she smirked faintly and stood up proudly on her own feet, despite the fact that she was drenched in her own blood, "You thought... you could get rid of Crimson Lily like that...? Fucking idiot!" Before that, he tugged her whip causing him to fall to the floor and begun to spin around and dragging him across the floor, after picking up a good amount of momentum Rodan was now lifted off the ground and being swung around like a rag doll as Lily groaned from the pain and force its taking to move this way, she quickly sped up her movements, and after a while Rodan was now screaming in terror, "Let me go! Get me the hell to the ground!" Before long, Lily heard his request and giggled weakly, "As you wish." As the order was clearly received Lily was now stopping and send Rodan flying into the glass roofing and crashing through the very floor above this one. After being stuck in the shambled pieces of metal, Rodan twitched in pain as the very force of the launch broke some of his armor, shattered his ankle and the crash damaging his torso area. "G-gah... A-ah... " As he slowly tried to move himself out of the wedge of metal he was pressed into as he dropped down, hitting multiple pipes, sharp edges of glass, and metal ceiling shards. Rodan was now collapsed on his chest, with nothing but twitches.

Gerard and Lily stood there with smiles on their faces, seeing that there was another obstacle in their way down, Lily stumbled a bit towards Gerard as she held onto her side, Gerard met with her halfway catching the stumbling damsel. "Well done Lily! You picked him up like WHOOSH! And then flung him like ZOOOOOOM! It was awesome!" Gerard laughed happily, as the good spirits carried over to her as well. She begun to laugh as well, before taking a second to let herself be silent, "We still have one thing... left to do Gerard." She went silent again, as she sighed heavily. Gerard laughed and pounded his hand to his chest, "Haha! Don't worry, as long as I've got my crew behind me, my windmill won't stop turning!" He pointed at her confidently, he smiled walking past her. Lily's eyes widened in shock at the high display of bravado in Gerard's voice, she couldn't say anything else in respond, only a smile. "Alright then Lily! Let's go get those blueprints!" Gerard kept towards the very last door in the fortress, with a deep breath. "This time... I want you to watch me wind fan our mill to victory!" As he was pushing the metal door open, a large large flew into the door leaving an immense hole in the door, "Where... where the hell do you think you're going... you fucking snakes!?" He was holding another lance in his other palm, blood dripping from every place it could through the shredded remains of the beaten and battered armor, Rodan was glaring at them both. "You... won't get past... J-justice...!" Stumbling towards the two, his grin was returned to his lips. Lily only growled, as she spread her arms wide and stood in front of Rodan's path. "This is as far as you go! You will not stop this whirlwind! I swear by the devil in my blood, you shall not pass!" Lily said sternly, her tone willed with venom and confidence. Gerard was shocked by her words, as he brushed his finger underneath his nose, and turned to her. "Let's get this over wi-" "Go! Now Gerard! I will hold him off, we are both battered and broken. I will not let you waste your strength on him. Please, stop this!" Lily looked over her shoulder at Gerard, him standing there speechless. "Are you sure you won't tip over, Banana waitress?" He remarked to her, turning his back to her and opening the door wide. She gave off a growl like laugh, "Keep that snappy attitude up, and I'll be beating you with your own legs..." Lily took hold of her whip once again, as she widened her stance with her proud and devilish glare, "I won't let you get near this door!" Gerard took his leave, through the doorway, but before he fully vanished he said to her, "You better make it out of here in one piece..." his comment was slightly concerned due to her condition, he put his confidence in her. Leaving the area, Gerard took a dash up the long corridor with his eyes shut as he tried to keep every bit of faith he could in her.

Lily turned back to Rodan who had another lance at the ready for her, "Are you ready to finish your little bleed out?" He provoked her once again, her eyes now flaring with rage as she cracked her whip against the ground and sending flakes of rock flying everywhere around her, she whip was spinning, smashing, and cracking against the ground, the very moment seeming as if she was only making a barrier around the front of the door, "Think you're ready to die so soon? Come at me!" She was now walking closer than that, Rodan was rushing once again with his lance pushed forward as he screamed in battle cry. "Die she beast!"

_**[Shortly after Gerard left the room...]**_

After a long traveling around the large fortress, our friend Jasper was now heading in the engine room, his head full of curiosity on why this place hasn't caught flame yet. As his wounds have damned near shut one again after his encounter with Lucia and Archibald, Jasper wasn't in his best place to battle once again at the moment, he searched every door he could to see where he was supposed to go, "This plan seems to be falling apart... God, why in the living hell do I have to do double the work in this?" Before long, he reached the very same corridor that was taken by Rio. As Jasper followed along the path until he reached a place that was flooded with the scent of blood, "Shit... what the hell happened here?" Jasper took hold of the edge and slid the door open, seeing that Rio was laid against the ground with his blood against the floor as well. He was laid on his stomach this time, his eyes open wide and an angered expression on his face, "Oh. Hey Jaspie. How's the weather up there?" Jasper blinked in confusion, as he saw his companion laid against the ground and making casual conversation, "So uhh you want me to leave you here or like, want me to..." Rio glared up at him, and there was silence between the two of them, Rio growled at Jasper and screamed, "GET ME OFF OF THIS COLD ASS FLOOR YOU SON OF A BITCH!" They both went back and forth for a while, which resulted in Jasper carrying Rio on his back Koala-style. Silence again dropped between the two of them, as Rio said. "We should do this more often." "Shut the hell up until we get to the engine room or I swear to god I will drop you!" Rio snickered and shook his head, "Hey man... why do you smell like sweat, sex and perfume...?"

_**[Back to Gerard...]**_

Finally reaching the last door in the place, he took a full charge at the door flipping into the air with his feet pointed at the door crashing through it so hard that they flew off the hinges and crashed into the floor, Gerard cracking his neck and looking around the area. This time the terrain was something else, something completely different. It was by far the largest one of them all, the entire room was lined with boulders, and prison chains connecting dead body to dead body, one after another against the stone. The rest of the floor was also made of rock or stones, some of the rocks having sharp edges, meaning there was stalagmites and stalactites all in random locations around the room. Gerard stepped lightly, the stone being crumbled beneath his very feet, he inhaled deeper and screamed, "VALDIS! GET THE HELL OUT HERE! I'M CALLING YOU OUT!" Gerard screamed in a blind rage, now preparing himself fully for the encounter. He was in a deep groan, as he progressed through the rocky area. There was a shaky clapping in the left of the room. Gerard hurried to see that there he was, Valdis himself sitting upon a stone throne against the wall. "Kid you really know how to make things noisy." Licking his lips sadistically, Drake was sitting there with a glass of wine in hand and snickering into a loud chuckle. "You think coming here was going to solve shit kid? Give me a fuckin' break!" He swayed his hand in a circular motion, making the wine swish around in the glass. Silence filled the room, the splashing on the wine echoed in the large room, Gerard had a death glare locked on Drake Valdis, it was nothing you'd expect from a free spirit like him. It was something new, wind started to collect around Gerard's body cutting against the earth as he stepped forward and used the wind that was around his legs, to propel himself forward towards the seat that Valdis was sitting upon, he thrusted his fist at him, "Take this!" He pushed his fist towards his head, in a matter of seconds Valdis was now behind him and the throne itself being smashed by the thrashing force of the fish. "Temper, temper. You'll get nowhere just finding your fists about." Valdis dropped the wine glass as he swung his body around, sending his leg dead into Gerard causing him to fly against several rocks, ramming and smashing on several more with a light glide against the ground, "H-how the hell do you hit so hard...?" Gerard spoke shakily, considering this was the second time he was hit by Drake.

Valid snickered to himself, as he caught the wine glass with his foot a second before it hit the ground, and spinning himself around, "What's wrong!? Windmill tip over and crash to the ground?!" Valids flung his leg so hard that the cup flew off of it, and was sent hurtling towards Gerard. Using as much time as he had in that window of opportunity, Gerard pushed himself into the air and the wind above him blowing the cup away as well, as he raised his leg into the air, "Windmill! Turning Fans!" As he used the wind around him to rotate himself several times and kicking his legs repeatedly sending a large barrage of thin clear wind blades, slicing through the air at speeds of bullets. Valdis simply smirked, licking his lips and raising one of his eyes up in curiosity, "Trying to end it so soon!? Give me a break!" As each one of the other blades of wind crashing and sending bursts of winds flying about the area. Gerard landed on top of one of the stalactites and trying to catch his breath a bit, Gerard watched the area around Drake's proposed figure, nothing coming into moment but dust. "Hahahaha! All winded out?" As the dust settled, they would reveal that there was a golem made of the same stones used on the flooring of the room, the golem only slightly shattered and broken away, with Valdis' hand on the back of it, the dust settling around him showing he was unharmed...

Gerard's eyes widened in shock with a slight quiver, "Are you serious...? You aren't..." His words were those of shock, ones that couldn't make their way out from just the plain frustration of it. "Yes! I possess the Earth Earth Fruit... Everything that is the opposite of you, so what goes up..." As Valdis said, his hand motioned upward to the ceiling as the stalagmites above Gerard shook and crumbled away, Drake screamed cockily, "MUST COME DOWN!" His hand swished to the ground, sending the rocks crashing down. Gerard pushed himself out of the as fast and strategically as he could to avoid the damage but a lot of the rock fragments were smashing against his skin and cutting him as he groaned and finally pulled out of the area. Gerard shook his head, and looked at his body seeing that there were fairly large chunks of rock jammed into his skin, "Oh well ain't that something." Gerard grabbed hold of everyone his could and just ripped it out of his skin, ruining his shirt and pants with rippled pieces of clothing and blood across the fabrics.

"So... I didn't expect you to be a devil fruit user as well... This ought to be one good round or two." Gerard put both of his hands up, and swung his fists like a boxer in his prime, jabbing and weaving around. Valdis raised his hand back to the golem, and made it move once again and pushed it towards Gerard in a tumbling motion. Gerard this time to push past his place once again, using the wind around his ankles and forcing himself in the direction of the golem, "Haaaaaaaa!" Covering himself in a torrent of wind, as he smashed through the golem with the heavy yet fast movements of the wind around his body, the rocks broke apart and flew past him as Gerard raised his fist once again to strike Drake, but once again he was gone. "Yoohoo, up here." Gerard stopped, quickly looking up as Drake dropped his leg down on top of Gerard and smashing him into the earth once again. Gently falling to the ground and standing next to Gerard, as he dusted himself off and smirked, "Bugs deserve to get crushed underneath the feet of the superior." As Gerard smirked against the floor, he took his time to push off the ground and spun around on the back with his legs swinging against Drake's, Gerard grabbing him and pinned him to the ground and pressing his knee to his chest, "Finally got you! Get ready! Wind Wind! Current Collage!" As he pushed wind around every one of his fingers, and pushing the current outward from his elbows rapidly making it so his hands under and pulled heavily and fast with punches. Each of them of colliding with Drake's face over and over, Gerard groaned and screamed, "Stay down! Stay down!" He rammed his fists into his face over and over, screaming as Drake was taking everyone of the impacts with gritted teeth, before long there was a shaking behind Gerard his was too busy pounding away at Drake to notice as he felt something grab him from behind and squeeze him. Without noticing, Drake had used his powers to create a large stone hand that grasped Gerard in it's mighty grip. Pushing himself off the ground, Drake sighed and spit a bit of blood to the ground, "First time I've been hit like that in a while... You're going to have to pay for that sonny boy!" As the hand tightened around Gerard, he screamed loudly and coughed up a bit of blood, the sounds of damaged ribs being heard. Drake raised his leg up, and sent it smacking against Gerard's skull, again and again. With each kick to his hand, Gerard groaned from mainly the hand, it tightened a bit with the kicking, after a while Drake snapped making the hand toss him across the room, and then clapping his hand as the rock from beneath and above closed together and making it so Gerard slammed against it hard and tumbled to the ground. "S-shit... that wasn't the best feeling in the w-world..." Gerard held his rib, and stood up once again as he stumbled and raised his fists once again.

Valdis blinked a bit, turning away and tried walking off from the fight. "You got one good hit of of me and think you can just get up like you own the damned place. Give me a break. Just go home and play with your little wind pussy pirates!" Gerard's head was now tilted down, as his fist bawled tighter, this was war now. Drake walked away laughing at his last comment, before he knew there was now a shadow cast above him with a leg covered in a huge layer of wind. Gerard's face, that one of a cold and filled with rage, "DON'T YOU EVER INSULT MY CREW!" Gerard roared with fury, as he sent his leg smashing into Drake's head and skipping him across several stones and landing into a pile of rocks with his arms hanging to the sides of his body, as he took hold of his head with a long groan, "You little..." Before he could say anything Gerard flew into Valdis once again, and sending a heavy sum of air pressure into his gut, rapidly stomping into his chest. "You can insult me! You can insult my name! You can smash my pride!" As he raised his leg up once again, his leg was almost like a tornado in it's own form, about to touch down on an open field. "LEAVE MY FRIENDS OUT OF THIS YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Drake took cover on himself, as Gerard dropped his leg down on top of Drake's guard. The large wind burst exploded above him, sending large waves of pressure around the area, Gerard landed on the ground, keeping what balance he could as he panted softly. His breathing long and heavy, nothing else came from his lips. "Think you're slick you little punk!?" With those angered words, a large hand made of pure stone pushed out of the ground, and followed by Drake's body and grabbing Gerard slamming him into the ground, causing the ground to spread into a crater. "You think scum like you is above me!? That you can hit me as you please like before!?" Three more fists rose from the ground and begun smashing down on Gerard left and right, each of them smashing him deeper into the ground as blood poured from him. His fingers twitching as he balled them into a fist trying to fight back the pain, "Fear the World Government! Let it be known that another cockroach was crushed." Drake pushed his hands together above him, as he pushed another large fist from the top of the ceiling letting it fall of Gerard trying to administer the finishing blow. 'Get up!' 'Get up!' 'GET THE HELL UP!' Voices echoed in Gerard's head, they were those of Jasper and Rio. Both of his closet companions on this earth.

As quickly as his beaten and broken body could move, Gerard planted his feet into the ground and raised his hands, catching the fist and holding it up trying to resist it's pressure and pushing it away from him, he groaned in pain as a lot of his bones took heavy damage from the previous beatings, "You think... that the Government is making me back down...? Think again!" Wind gathered around Gerard in a heavy current once against, the wind rippling so hard that the rock above him started to cut and break apart. "Wind Wind Knight!" As he screamed that, the wind around him formed into a protective current of sharp wind that Gerard used only in emergencies. This made Drake step back in fear of a horrid blow being taken, "Get ready..." The current around the base of his feet strengthened, pushing him off the ground as he tightened his fist one again. He propelled himself away from the ground once again, and thrusted his fist towards Drake's stomach, "Because I'm going to send you flying in the gale of my fist!" As his hit made connection, Gerard pushed himself and Drake through the air and ramming into several rocks once again before they both made a rough collision against the rock throne that Drake was sitting upon before Gerard smashed into it. They both remained there for a good few seconds before, Drake twitched and looked up at Gerard, "You forget... You aren't the only Logia-Type in his room." Gerard tried moving back as fast as he before he knew it a slab of rock sent him flying across the room, another one smacking him into another one, over and over this cycle repeating itself as Gerard was knocked around like a pinball. His wind barrier was now providing little to no defense, as blood dripped from his body. Drake collected fragments of earth from around himself, snickering as he was collecting the rocks around him in the same manner as Gerard, to create a defense and heal himself. Snapping his fingers once again, the rocks flung Gerard at him once again as Drake cocked his fist back trying to make another swing at him, "Hahaha! Don't think you're something now!?" Gerard fixed himself as quickly as he could and swung his leg at Drake, both of their attacks colliding with each other, both of them glaring. "Don't get cocky!" Valdis remarked, thrusting his quick fists at Gerard, and the same with Gerard's legs. The wind and the earth breaking away of their control from the crazy barrage of attacks between the two of them.

They exchanged blows back and forth, not letting up on either. Gerard's jaw and chest which were previously damaged were taking several hit as well. Drake's head and stomach were taking swift blows from Gerard's incredible kicking power, also with previous destruction to the body on both locations. They both panted and coughed blood, before long they both grew tired of this. "I'm ending this Pirate!" "I dare you to even try!" Their exchange was put to a stop by Drake pulling back from one last kick and falling up a large hand once again, it grabbing Gerard again and tossing him across the room into one of the rock walls that were knocking him around. Gerard slid to the ground, and shook before his wind armor was called off. Gerard glared at him, as he saw that Drake was collecting a large section of earth into a specific shape, it was turning into a giant drill like shape. "This is your end pirate! Say your last words! After I kill you, I'll jail Crimson! I'll murder the old man! And the blueprints to the Legendary ship of Destruction will be ours!" "Shut up!" Drake stopped in place as Gerard was drenched in blood, with his fist balled tight, "Idiots like you live with no friends..." his words were deep, and concrete to his pride. Wind gathered around him once again, mainly around his right fist, the current was heavy and grew with Gerard's anger, "Idiots like you live a sad life... Idiots like you die alone..." As the wind grew heavier, now sending large chunks of rock flying away from him. Drake witnessed the display of it, stepping back and moving the rocks into a completed shape of the drill, "S-shut up you insignificant worm! Who are you to say those things!? You're nothing!" Drake pushed his arms forward in a panic, as he launched the rock drill at Gerard, it being twice the size of a semi-truck. At this display, Drake felt a huge amount of confidence in his finishing move.

Gerard showed no sign at all of fear of the attack, he closed his eyes as he screamed louder making the wind around him turn into a hellish tornado, he pushed himself off of the ground and almost stumbled from the pain he pushed past it as the main source of his current was thrusted towards the point of the drill, his right hand, the wind collided with the drill as Gerard was starting to be pushed back as he gritted his teeth in resistance, Drake's eyes widened now showing an intense amount of fear, "IT'S NO USE!" Using his power, he tried pushing it as well, shaking his head and feeling his arm cracking from the abuse and the force of the drill, he winched and kept pushing, "NO! I DON'T CARE! I TOLD YOU BEFORE VALDIIIIIIIIIIIS!" As he felt the large amount of wind growing, he pushed himself past the drill and smashing past it and ramming through it, rocks being jammed into his body as he divided the large attack and launched himself at Drake once again, his entire body a spiraling torrent of wind, Drake making no effort to run. Feeling the fist smashing into the same spot he was hit before, he hacked heavily and felt himself being picked up off of his feet. "G-gah...!" Gerard kept pushing and eventually flying through the air having a hold of Valdis with the current, using it to smash through the next room with Lily and Rodan. The body of Rodan laid against the ground in a pile of his broken armor, Lily laying against the wall in amazement watching as they dashed past the room. Once they hit the very entrance of the room. Gerard stopped the current in one place and curving them upward and into the sky, Valdis was now clung to Gerard by grip and the wind around them smashing through every previous floor above them until they smashed through the deck of the ship and shattered the sail. Once they were high enough in the sky that everyone on the island could see, Gerard disbursed his wind and grabbed a hold of Drake from behind him, "This is it! Cyclonic Storm!" Using his abilities once again, he rotated them in a torrent of wind and pushed them to the deck of the ship, Gerard took hold to the point where he was grabbing Drake by his waist, "REMEMBER THIS YOU MILITARY PIGS! AS LONG AS WE'RE TOGETHER! YOU'LL NEVER STOP OUT WINDMILL FROM TURNING!" As he announced that to the soldiers that were watching, Gerard moved the second they were about to hit the deck, and delivering a devastating suplex to the Drake, dropping him on the back of his neck. A large shock wave of wind forced the rest of the marines off of the edge of the boat.

After the rest of the shock wave settled, Gerard panted heavily as he stood above the unconscious body of Drake, he was defeated by his enemy. Gerard raised his fist up, giving weak and slow laughter, "Y-YEAH!" He used the last of his energy to give off his well earned cry of victory, falling over on the ground and passing out against the deck of the ship. The cry of victory was heard by everyone at the village, they all gave him a loud cheer and thanking him for saving them. The now bandaged Roushi was sitting on a crate, smiling up at the deck of the ship and shook his head, "That kid... is really something."


End file.
